A "cold and calculating" man who admitted trying to arrange to have his mother-in-law killed after his wife deserted him has been jailed.
Bhupinder Dhesi, 36, of Lennox Road, Gravesend, Kent, blamed his wife's mother for leaving their marital home with their two children.
He hired a private investigator to find his family, but his requests turned sinister when he asked him to find two witnesses to provide false evidence at his impending mortgage fraud trial.
The investigator, who was uneasy with the request, asked Dhesi to email him his requirements, and later Dhesi asked him to help get his children back, police said.
Dhesi also suggested his wife have some form of accident. Less than a week later, he changed his mind, and said he wanted his mother-in-law killed instead.
Detectives arrested him at his home on October 13 last year - days before he was due to stand trial at Maidstone Crown Court on two fraud charges which he later admitted.
Dhesi pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice in connection with trying to get false witnesses at his trial and to soliciting to commit murder after originally denying the charge, Kent Police said.
At Maidstone Crown Court on Thursday, he was sentenced to five years, three months for soliciting to commit murder and eight months for perverting the course of justice, to run concurrently.
In addition, he was jailed for three years, six months for the fraud offences and two years, three months for a separate London-based mortgage fraud - totalling 11 years behind bars.
Following the case, Detective Chief Inspector Andrea Bishop, of the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate, said: "Dhesi was cold and calculating and prepared to go to any length to get his wife and children back.
"It didn't matter to him if that cost money or meant getting people to lie on his behalf. He is now behind bars for a long time where he will have time to reflect upon his actions."