Two British brothers have been sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering a Non Resident Indian businessman when he tried to stop them from stealing his car radio in East London.
Balbir Matharu, 54, who hailed from Punjab, was killed after confronting the drug addict duo when he saw one of them smash the window of his white Mercedes van.
Drug addicts Albert, 26, and Tommy Willett, 24, were found guilty of Matharu's murder by the Old Bailey court.
Matharu was working at his family building firm in Stratford in east London when the incident occurred on January 12, 2006.
He chased the thieves, who ran and jumped into a waiting Ford Mondeo and knocked him as he tried to stop their getaway.
"The crime is beneath contempt," Judge Moss told the brothers. He ordered Tommy to serve a minimum term of 25 years and Albert to serve a minimum of 27 years.
"Balbir Matharu was a decent, upstanding family man whose fatal mistake was to stand up to the likes of you when you tried to steal his property," the judge said.
The Willett brothers, who had a string of previous convictions including armed robbery and drug-related offences, lived at a travellers' site in Clays Lane, Stratford.
The murder convictions are believed to be the first for such an offence. Previous cases, where someone has been run over during a crime, have resulted in convictions for manslaughter
Matharu's daughter Baljinder said that she could not forgive the 'cowardly and despicable' act of the killers.
