CAR dealer Karl Watson was jailed for life yesterday for the murder of

his mother's wealthy lover.

Judge Nina Lowry recommended that Watson, 29, serve a minimum of 20

years. What he did was ''deliberate, calculated cruelty and anyone

capable of such cruelty against a fellow human being may repeat it,''

she told the Old Bailey.

Watson, of Selsdon, Surrey, had denied murdering John Shippey, 47, and

falsely imprisoning him in December 1991 but was found guilty by the

jury on Monday.

Mr Shippey was kidnapped from the home he shared with Watson's mother,

Josephine, in Ightham, Kent, and taken to a lock-up unit in Croydon.

As he lay bound and gagged and unable to defend himself, Watson

slashed him with a knife and stabbed him repeatedly in the chest.

He kept his victim's body in a car boot for three days before setting

it on fire in a lane.

It was only after the murder that his victim's double life was

revealed. To colleagues at Doves, the Croydon Jaguar and Ford dealership

where he was the #40,000-a-year director of finance, Mr Shippey was a

trusted and well-liked man.

But for years he had secretly been embezzling money totalling nearly

#1m to fund a luxury lifestyle including a string of mistresses,

expensive cars and homes, and an offshore bank account. The company is

involved in a civil action to try to recover the missing money.

When auditors moved in to check Doves's books, Mr Shippey needed cash

to prevent his deception being uncovered.

He began liquidising his assets and both Watson and his mother feared

this would include the sale of the #250,000 house in Ightham.

Mr Nigel Sweeney, prosecuting, said of Mr Shippey: ''At the time of

his murder he was involved with four different women, he had interests

in three houses on the southern outskirts of London, he was the

registered owner of three expensive cars in this country, and the owner

of two properties, one substantial, in Spain. He owned a motor cruiser

moored in Spain and had considerable money including a deposit account

in a Jersey bank containing #180,000.''

The four women were Josephine, who he met in the 1970s, when she

worked as a secretary at Doves and their relationship endured despite

his marriage in 1980 to Sheila, another Dove employee.

The other women were Sue Hipperson, another Dove employee, and

Christine Milson the barmaid of his local public house.

Mr Shippey, a man with a ''charismatic personality'', always carried

one or two brief cases in which he kept records of his complex financial

dealings and up to #50,000 cash.

Before the murder his ''volatile'' relationship with Josephine began

to deteriorate and they

argued over trivial things.

It was after an evening out with Josephine and friends that Watson,

who had never liked his mother's lover, struck. Exactly what happened at

the house was never revealed in court, but it ended with Mr Shippey

being taken bound and gagged to the cold lock-up.

There, according to witness Bruce Cousins, it was so cold he went home

to get a heater to warm the captive. Cousins described how Watson raged

at his victim ''you should have paid her the money'' before going

''absolutely berserk'' and plunging the knife into his chest.

Cousins said he was too frightened to intervene and through fear of

Watson followed him three days later as he drove Mr Shippey's body into

the country and set it on fire.

Watson was arrested months later after Cousins confessed to his part.

Cousins, 25, of Croydon, has admitted helping to dispose of the body

and will be sentenced later.