A SHODDY builder faces 21 years in jail today after strangling an Enfield nurse with a shirt.

Malaysian Mei Choo Ngan, 54, was attacked and killed in her home in Stanley Road, Palmers Green, by her builder over a row about payment in July 2007.

Illegal immigrant Tian Chen, 33, of Lordship Lane in Wood Green, strangled Ms Ngan because she was "very stingy" in paying for building work on her Palmers Green house, a jury heard.

Chen, who claimed he suffocated Ms Ngan by accident, was found guilty of murder at the Old Bailey this week and will serve a minimum of 21 years behind bars.

He had been recommended to Ms Ngan by a friend to renovate the bedrooms in her house before her parents visited.

The work was completed on July 2 but she had asked him to redo a part of the job. Prosecutor Zoe Johnson said: "It appears she had not paid the bill in full because of some outstanding work that had to be done."

Chen admitted he planned to burgle the nurse's home after Ms Ngan complained. When she disturbed him he battered her about the head, throttled her with a shirt and tried to set fire to the body.

Chen, who has a history of stealing from homes he worked on, was caught after leaving his bloodstained trousers at the scene.

Ms Ngan was last seen at work in St Ann's Hospital in Tottenham on July 5, 2007, and was captured on CCTV at Bounds Green Tube station on her way home around 5pm.

Miss Johnson said: "That was the last time anyone saw her alive apart from her killer. She was murdered sometime that night. When her body was found she was wearing the clothes she had changed into to go to bed."

When Ms Ngan failed to turn up for work the next day or meet her cousin Ho Kin Wing, he called the police who broke into her house and found her lying on her bed.

She had been beaten and strangled with a shirt in the master bedroom before being dragged bleeding into the second bedroom.

After the murder Chen fled to Manchester and then Liverpool before being arrested at Liverpool Lime Street Station on July 14.

In a statement read out in court, Mr Wing said: "The cruel death of Mei has impacted on the family in so many ways, especially in the manner in which she was killed.

"The family loved Mei very much. The senseless killing of Mei has left me and my family in shock.

"The society has unceremoniously lost an upright and model member. Mei's departure can never be replaced."