A businessman started a "massive blaze" in an old bingo hall he owned after falling out with his tenant.
Paul Bell had bought the large property at Southwick Green in Sunderland, in 2016 for £105,000 but rented it to another man, who ran it as an auction house and furniture shop.
Newcastle Crown Court heard that after a dispute between the two businessmen, Bell started a fire that destroyed the entire building in February 2017. The court heard 13 fire engines attended the blaze and firefighters from Gosforth, in Newcastle and Seaham, in County Durham had to be drafted in to extinguish it.
