“What you did to your wife is utterly shocking,” the judge said.

Upon hearing his sentence, the father of two looked calm and waved to relatives before being escorted out of the courtroom.

Wong killed Wong Lei, 54, at their Sun Hui home in Tuen Mun on September 12, 2014.

The court earlier heard that he lost his self-control when his wife complained about his impotence and threatened to evict him from their home.

Wong told the court he had shivered at his wife’s words and had no recollection of attacking her – he just recalled that he found his right hand around her neck when he became conscious.

A forensic pathologist who testified during the trial said Wong Lei was probably strangled.

Stuart-Moore said the evidence showed that Wong hit his wife many times with a variety of objects, including a broken handle from an axe kept in their flat.

The driver then killed his wife by asphyxiating her, the judge continued. “It’s a clear case of murder.”

The judge said it remained uncertain why Wong Lei was so angry with her husband, but her rage eventually cost her her life.

Wong Fung did not make a plea for leniency before the sentencing.

His wife had been in an affair since 2013 and wanted a divorce, the court heard earlier. But her husband had wanted to save his family and asked his son to intervene and persuade his mother to leave her lover.

Private investigator Chiang Chi-fai, who Wong hired to follow his wife, told the court how he once observed the lovers meeting at Hong Kong International Airport and then heading together to Tuen Mun before parting company afterwards.

The private detective advised Wong not to pursue the matter further, but the driver insisted on knowing more about the background of his wife’s lover. Wong had wanted him to collect evidence that the man was a playboy and was seeing other women, Chiang said.

Wong’s son and daughter, who also testified at the trial, were not seen in court when their father was sentenced.