A CHARTERED accountant who has built his one-man band into a firm employing 70 staff is celebrating 20 years in business in Darlington.

Clive Owen decided to go it alone after working for Peat Marwick and Mitchell in the town, and in industry.

He started out working from his former home in Holyrood Avenue, before moving to offices in Cockerton Green and Blackwell Lane.

For the past five years, the firm's headquarters have been in the imposing building previously occupied by Ropners at 140 Coniscliffe Road.

Originally from Birmingham, Mr Owen moved to Darlington as a teenager when his father's work brought him North. Apart from spells working out of the area, he has been based in the town virtually ever since.

"I like it here very much," he said.

As well as its Darlington base, Clive Owen and Co also has offices in Durham and York - "the spine down the middle of the North-East," as Mr Owen put it.

Although he laughs at the term being used in connection with an accountant, he describes himself as something of a revolutionary.

He explained: "When I started the practice, I wanted to give clients a much broader based service with a more pro-active approach. There are more companies that do that now but, 20 years ago, it was significantly different from what other firms were offering.

"Nearly half the staff here are qualified accountants, so that means we are in a position to give a wide range of advice. I think that has made a difference to the success of the business."

One of the main differences he has seen over the last 20 years is an increase in regulation.

"We have had a succession of governments which say they are going to simplify the system, but in fact they do the opposite and there is more and more legislation," he said. "The Taxes Act just seems to get bigger every year."

The other big change was in the law surrounding the auditing of firms.

Mr Owen said: "When I started, every limited company had to be audited. Now it is only companies with a turnover of £1m or more. I think the theory was that it would reduce the burden on small companies and they were going to increase the limit to £4.8m - then September 11 raised its head. The Government realised that a lot of companies with a turnover of less than £1m were money laundering.

"Quite frankly, I don't know what is going to happen now."

In the last four or five years the firm has added a separate financial services company and has appointed specialists in corporate finance and VAT.

"We've changed as we've gone along," said Mr Owen. "We have a marketing department, which is probably quite unusual for an accountancy firm, and they arrange our seminars and events and we can give assistance to clients with marketing matters. I think that has been very helpful."

Away from business, Mr Owen's main hobby is playing bridge. A grand master, he regularly plays in national competitions and, in the last couple of years, has won the major UK pairs title and the Scottish teams' championships, as well as representing England in a friendly against Sweden.

He recalled playing against film star Omar Sharif in Eastbourne about 20 years ago. "It was quite an experience," he said. "There was quite a number of beautiful women watching, which was something I have not experienced before or since."

He outlined his and the firm's philosophy for successfully moving with the times and continually building the business: "We are always looking for new opportunities, but we make certain that we get the right person in before we do it. We don't try to pretend we can do something that we can't."