A retired producer on TV show The Bill has been jailed for 17 years for trying to hire three men to kill his wealthy partner so he could be with a Lithuanian lover 40 years younger than him.

David Harris was willing to pay £200,000 to have Hazel Allinson murdered so he could live out his days with Ugne Cekaviciute, who he met in a brothel.

The 68-year-old former TV drama scriptwriter denied wanting Ms Allinson dead, claiming he only wanted to talk to hitmen as research for a murder mystery novel.

But he was found guilty of three charges of soliciting murder at the Old Bailey.

Sentencing, Judge Anne Molyneux QC told him: "For your pipe dream, for your obsessive infatuation with a young woman, Ms Allinson, who had protected and nurtured you, was to die a painful and terrifying death in an isolated spot.

"Her death was to fund your life. You had used her until she had outlasted her usefulness to you."

Harris admitted he got into a tangle of lies and mounting debt as he lavished expensive gifts on the 28-year-old former professional basketball player during their five-year affair.

The court heard of his determined attempts to have his partner of 27 years killed in a "mugging gone wrong", before he was snared in an undercover sting.

The trial heard Harris blew £50,000 of Ms Allinson's savings and used her reputation as a parish councillor and church chorister to borrow thousands of pounds from neighbours in the West Sussex village of Amberley.

Prosecutor William Boyce QC said Harris decided the only way out of his predicament was to pay a hitman to kill Ms Allinson in a staged mugging or car-jacking.

Harris was eventually put in contact Zed - real name Duke Dean - promising him £200,000 for the job, but in November last year Zed reported him to City of London Police instead.

Zed introduced Harris to another prospective hitman, undercover officer "Chris", who secretly videoed the meeting in a Sainsbury's car park in Balham, south London. The next day police burst into a room at the Balham Lodge Hotel to arrest Harris.

Anthony Rimmer, mitigating, said Harris had been a "silly old fool", although his infatuation did not excuse the offences.

Detective Chief Inspector Edelle Michaels, of City of London Police, said: "The facts of the case have shown him to be a calculating, manipulative person who was intent on causing serious harm to his victim.

"The situation could have been far worse had Harris succeeded with his plan and there was an element of good fortune that one of the men Harris approached informed the police, prompting our swift response to ensure the safety of Harris's intended victim."