A teenager who was free to murder a mother-of-two with a machete despite being reported as a bogus student two months earlier was jailed for life today.

Sher Singh, 19, killed Geeta Aulakh on behalf of her jealous husband even though the UK Border Agency was told he was not attending college.

No action was taken, leaving Singh, who is from India, free to butcher the popular Sunrise Radio receptionist as she went to pick up her sons from a childminder.

Her husband, Harpreet Aulakh, ordered the murder after she had asked him for divorce, the Old Bailey heard.

Aulakh, 32, of Greenford, west London, and Singh, 19, of Southall, west London, were jailed alongside look-out Jaswant Dhillon, 30, of Ilford, east London.

Sentencing the gang, Mr Justice Saunders said: “It was a pointless, cold-blooded killing of a woman about whom no-one except Aulakh had a bad word to say.”

Aulakh was told he must serve at least 28 years behind bars, while Singh and Dhillon were each given 22-year minimum terms.

Jurors were unable to agree a verdict on 20-year-old Harpreet Singh, of Slough, Berkshire. He denies murder and will now face a retrial.

The judge said Singh had fallen under the influence of Aulakh, a “man of the world”, who had got him to commit the “truly appalling and shocking crime”.

”His reason for wanting Geeta dead was that she had made it clear to him that she was determined to divorce him and he was not prepared to accept that and he was prepared to kill her to prevent it happening.

”The family has lost a sister and daughter but most importantly the two children have lost a mother.

”I have no doubt that the family have suffered an appalling loss.

”I am satisfied that in the context of murders the seriousness of the offence is particularly high.”

Aulakh had ordered the killing after his wife plucked up the courage to ask for a divorce following years of abuse and harassment by him, including hacking into her Facebook account.

He was wrongly convinced that she was having an affair with another man.

She told her sister Anita Shinh: “He is very dangerous.”

Aulakh told Miss Shinh that he was certain his wife had a boyfriend and vowed: “I’m going to kill him and I’m going to kill her.”

Aftab Jafferjee QC, prosecuting, said behind the “savage and determined” attack was Aulakh’s “chilling” reaction to his wife’s desire to leave him.

”Geeta Aulakh was in the process of divorcing him and that would not be tolerated,” he said.

”No one else in the world could possibly have wished this utterly innocent and hard-working woman and mother any harm.”

Sunrise Radio presenter Vishal Nadir described Mrs Aulakh as “such a lovely girl” who would “always think about people”.

Smirking Aulakh, described by Mr Jafferjee as “smug and utterly unrepentant”, claimed in court that his wife was his “first love” and he did not kill her.

He had thought he was in the clear because he made sure he was captured on CCTV in a pub at the time of the murder, and told a friend: “I don’t do anything stupid. I get someone else to do it.”

But detectives discovered that Aulakh had himself offered £5,000 for the killing - although there is no evidence the money was ever paid - and had been in phone contact with Singh hours before it took place.

They also found pictures from a wedding in the Punjab showing Aulakh with Singh - who was linked to the murder by DNA evidence.

Another breakthrough came when the weapon used to kill Mrs Aulakh was found in a canal and discovered to be a Brazilian-made machete, whose sole UK supplier had sent a batch of 20 to a shop in Hounslow, only three of which were sold.

In CCTV footage from the store, shown to the court, Aulakh could be seen buying the blade for £14 just days before the murder.

Aulakh had met his future wife at a bus stop in Hounslow when she was still a teenager but her family disapproved of the relationship.

They eloped to Belgium and Holland, getting married and starting a family, before returning to the UK.

But the romance had drained from the marriage, with Mrs Aulakh telling a friend her husband was “obsessed” with the idea that she was having an affair.