A HUSBAND who murdered his wife to pocket a �375,000 life insurance payout has been jailed for a minimum of 20 years. Mikdat Sahpaz, 46, stabbed mother-of-two Elif Oruc, 42, at the family home in Carlton Avenue East, Wembley, and then tried to disguise it

A HUSBAND who murdered his wife to pocket a �375,000 life insurance payout has been jailed for a minimum of 20 years.

Mikdat Sahpaz, 46, stabbed mother-of-two Elif Oruc, 42, at the family home in Carlton Avenue East, Wembley, and then tried to disguise it as a burglary.

Sahpaz, who prosecutors claim had been having an affair with another woman for four years, called 999 at 10pm on July 9 last year and claimed he had just come home and found her body.

Mrs Oruc had run and then sold a sandwich shop business to spend more time with her children, before becoming a dinner lady at Barham Primary School in Wembley.

Friends of Mrs Oruc told the police that the duo had been unhappy for some time and that she was contemplating divorcing her husband.

Between them, the couple, who are both Turkish, owned four properties across the capital worth �1m.

Sahpaz had denied murder claiming fresh scratches on his arm were caused by picking blackberries.

The court heard the injuries may have been sustained as Mrs Oruc desperately fought for her life.

Last week at the Old Bailey he was found guilty of her murder and sentenced to life in jail with a minimum tariff of 20 years.

Detective Chief Inspector Tim Duffield of the Homicide and Serious Crime Command said: "Mikdat Sahpaz not only callously and coldly planned the murder of his wife, but he engineered the evening's events to ensure that his children were present when he supposedly 'discovered' their mother's body.

"Evidence gathered during the investigation exposed a man whose desire was to lead a life very much apart from his family, and who had secretly squandered the children's life savings to fund his selfish indulgencies.

"My sympathies go out to Elif Oruc's children as they now have to come to terms with not only their mother's death, but the fact that it was at the hands of their father."

lorraine.king@archant.co.uk