The judge told him: "It was an abhorrent act which shocks the mind of any right-thinking member of society."

After the murder the killer "set about a deception that the dead man was in fact still alive and well" by withdrawing £300 from accounts belonging to the victim.

Jeremy Donne QC, prosecuting, said: "If the body was not identified and if the victim had not been reported missing because people thought he was alive and well then this defendant would quite literally have got away with murder.

"Unfortunately for him a thorough and painstaking police investigation did uncover the identity of the dead man and uncover the evidence that points conclusively to the defendant's guilt."

Officers in Warwickshire were able to identify around 30 cars that were on the motorway at the time, narrowing these down to one which fitted the description given by an eye witness and tracing the vehicle to Mr Khan in London.

The investigation was transferred to the Metropolitan Police and they arrested Wali at the Plaistow address on January 7.

CCTV from a service station showed the killer buying the petrol he used to burn the body from a Texaco service station, while an eye witness identified Wali as being at the site where the body was dumped.

The court heard that Wali, a married father of seven, may have been in a business dispute with Mr Khan, a Pakistani chicken shop owner and car dealer.

Jurors rejected his claim that the murder was carried out by a mystery man who then forced him to dispose of the body.

Detective Inspector Tim Wilkinson said police had been presented with a "complete mystery" and that without the use of CCTV technology the case would never have been solved.