A television executive who murdered his wealthy father and hid his body in a wheelie bin was yesterday jailed for life for his “callous” crime.

Benjamin Holding, 29, killed his 70-year-old father by repeatedly smashing his head against the floor and a metal cat bowl at their home near Banchory, Aberdeenshire.

Within 90 minutes of the attack he had begun draining Michael Holding's bank accounts, spending what he claimed was his “rightful inheritance” and splashing out £17,000 on a BMW.

Holding, a business development executive with Scottish Television, was told yesterday that he would have to spend at least 15 years behind bars. Passing sentence, temporary judge Roger Craik, QC, described the killing and Holding's subsequent attempt to cover it up as “grave and callous”.

He told the High Court in Edinburgh: “The shock and distress that you have caused your friends and family must be considerable. You will have to live with that guilt.”

Holding pleaded guilty to murder last month, as well as fraud charges and attempting to defeat the ends of justice by hiding the body and destroying evidence.

The 29-year-old was in deep financial trouble when the attack happened in October last year. He and his wife were living temporarily with his father, a retired oil executive, at his house in East Mains, Inchmarlo, while they tried to buy their own home.

Holding, who had run up debts and could not get a mortgage, lied to his wife and father, telling them that he had bought a house. His wife had even packed their belongings for the move.

On the day of the killing, he told his wife that there was going to be a delay getting into the new property and agreed to go home and tell his father that they would need to stay on. He later told police that there had been a row in which he pushed his father to the ground and banged his head repeatedly on the floor.

When he realised what he had done, he wrapped the body in a sheet and dumped it head-first in a wheelie bin in the garden shed, where it went unnoticed for nearly two months. He also washed away blood stains in the utility room, where the killing took place.

Holding then accessed his father's bank accounts and began a seven-week spending spree in which he went through £30,000. He spent £17,000 on a BMW, racked up £7,000 on his father's credit cards and even hosted a fireworks party at the house while the body lay undiscovered. He also sent bogus e-mails pretending to be his father and claiming he was elsewhere in Britain.

Two transactions, a car insurance payment and a withdrawal of £200 were made on the day of the murder.

Advocate-depute Alastair Brown, for the prosecution, told the court: “The accused had begun to commit fraud within, at most, an hour and a half of the murder.”

Holding, who was described by police as a “skilful and accomplished liar”, claimed that he had been driven to the killing by his “domineering” father who, he said, viewed him as a “waste of space”. The court was told that Mr Holding had bailed his son out on a number of occasions, even paying off his £17,000 student loans.

The judge told Holding yesterday: “I appreciate there may have been an atmosphere of tension between your father and yourself. This seems largely to be caused by your own financial irresponsibility.

“What rendered the fatal assault truly a murderous one are your actions thereafter. Rather than try and get help for your father, you concealed his body... and proceeded to pretend to all concerned that he was still alive.”

Holding's deception finally unravelled in December last year when his wife opened a bank statement belonging to her father-in-law, which showed that his bank cards had been used locally just days previously.

Benjamin Holding confessed to his wife and later told detectives: “Two months ago I had an argument with my father. I killed him and he's in the shed.”

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