Geoff Bell revolutionised truck drivers' accommodation by building Carlisle Truck Inn and running it for 10 years.
He built up a fleet of 15 Volvo F86s running round the clock and thus helped forge the modern-day road haulage industry.
Then Michael James Bland, his trusted chartered accountant and a partner at Dodd & Co Carlisle, turned out to be a professional fraudster, who defrauded Geoff Bell out of his hard-earned money from the Carlisle Truck Inn, after he had sold out to BP Oil.