AN EMBITTERED wife wept as she admitted hiring a bogus hitman to slay her millionaire spouse on the streets of Biggin Hill.

The Old Bailey heard on Monday how 41-year-old Shelley Molyneux wanted husband Jon Molyneux dead after he left her for a lover 16 years her junior.

But the court heard how her plans to get her hands on her tycoon husband's £1m fortune went awry.

In February this year, she sought out a hitman and agreed a fee for the killing, suggesting the roads around Biggin Hill airport as an ideal location. Mr Molyneux, also 41, a director of online business directory Scoot.com, spent a great deal of time flying helicopters from the airport.

She suggested, during a phone call to the hitman, a bungled carjacking would be an ideal cover for the contract murder.

But the hitman was in fact an undercover tabloid reporter who recorded many of their conversations.

She allegedly told the reporter: "I have spent 20 years with a man who has been an absolute bastard.

"I want him gone forever.

"He is an easy target I would think, being 5ft 3in. And he's flash. He wears Armani suits and drives an Audi."

Molyneux, of Gidea Park, Romford, was arrested by armed flying squad officers at Gatwick Airport on February 24 as she returned from a holiday with her children and new boyfriend.

She will be held in custody, after pleading guilty to soliciting to murder, and sentenced on October 18.