AN accountancy whizz-kid scored the highest mark in an exam taken by thousands worldwide.

David Bryan, of The Green, Welling, outwitted almost 10,000 people who sat paper nine of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants' exams last June.

He said: "I knew I had done well but I didn't expect to do as well as this. I was stunned when I heard I had won."

The 26-year-old, who works for PR firm Burson Marstellar, was awarded £150 by exam sponsors, AT Emile Woolf Colleges and will complete three and a half years' training and become a fully-qualified accountant if he passes his final exams in June.

"It will be great to finish," he said. "It has been a long slog."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.