A womanising entrepreneur who tried to collect £500,000 life insurance by mowing down his wife in his Land Rover has to serve at least 14 years in jail.

Michael Hollins was facing ruin after a series of failed business ventures and decided to rid himself of his wife in favour of “more exciting women.”

But the 40-year-old father-of-two planned a “truly wicked crime” said Judge Alistair McCreath at Worcester Crown Court and afterwards play-acted as a worried and concerned husband.

Had Hollins succeeded in killing his wife, the sentence would have been 28 years, said the judge. As it was, he must stay in jail for 14 years before he can apply for release.

Hollins had led a double life with a string of lovers and the court heard that he was motivated by “lust, sex and money.”

He not only cheated on 41-year-old Chloe, his wife of 15 years and a mother-of-two, but also lied consistently to his other mistresses. He carried out the crime when he was threatened with bankruptcy. The judge said his life was in disarray of his own making. Not only was he facing financial ruin but his personal life was tangled so he devised a plot to get rid of his wife. He secretly parked the vehicle near his home in Tower Road, Hereford, and drove it at his wife as she collected eggs from a farm. She suffered two fractures of her pelvis, a broken leg and internal injuries. Hollins was convicted of attempted murder after a three-week trial.

For years he had led a secret life with a mistress in Glasgow, Franca Bianchet, by whom he fathered two children. He took out a £195,000 mortgage to buy her a cottage, which she ran as a bed and breakfast. Another girlfriend, 42-year-old Anne Wankiiri, a council worker in Northampton, was said to be standing by him and attended the trial.

He also cheated on another lover, Anne Mills, of Bristol, who spent a night with him at a hotel in Worcester on his birthday just days before his wife was badly injured.

Judge McCreath assessed Hollins as “a dangerous offender” and his crime had had a psychological effect upon his wife, who had recovered from life-threatening injuries. She had been affected when she had learned of his duplicitous life.

His callous plan had not been spontaneous and had left deep scars which would be with his family for life.