Sentencing Bao Lung Huang and Zhouli Zhang, Mr Justice Butterfield said: “This was a brutal killing committed because you two fell out with your victim over the sale of a harvest of cannabis.

“You locked him in a room at the warehouse which you had leased as a front for the sole purpose of growing cannabis and there attacked him with a weapon or weapons intending to kill him.

“You then set about clearing up the scene of the murder, covering up as best you could the evidence of the killing and dumping his body in a canal many miles from the unit itself where you no doubt hoped it would never be found.

“I conclude that the killing was not premeditated for any significant period of time but I am satisfied that the killing was aggravated by your attempts to conceal the body of your victim by the indignity you inflicted on his body by dumping it in a canal.

“Having seen you both giving evidence I do think it’s appropriate to distinguish between the two of you. In your case Huang the minimum period is 18 years for you Zhang it is 16 years.”