A 70-YEAR-OLD Peter Tavy man has just won a national accountancy award which recognises excellence throughout the entire UK profession.

Major Bill Lane impressed the judges by transforming the Inland Revenue's third largest approved agency responsible for distributing employees' donations to charitable trusts on behalf of employers.

Bill transformed the Federation of Master Builders Charitable fund into South West Charitable Giving (SWCG).

He built up SWCG from an agency that distributed just £40 to four charities in 1987 to one that distributed more than £500,000 in donations from a total of 72,000 donors to an estimated 3,700 charities in 2001.

He said: 'I am delighted to have received recognition for my team, my wife and myself. I am honoured to have won and hope it will encourage other older people to continue achieving success throughout their lives.

'I am very proud of South West Charitable Giving. There are very few payroll giving agencies and I hope that by winning the Accounting Technician of the Year award I will obtain outside recognition for SWCG and for all my hard work.'

One judge remarked: 'Lane's presentation told me a lot about payroll giving agencies that I did not already know.'