NELSON woman Gayle Dunkley has beaten off stiff competition to win first place in a prestigious worldwide finance competition.

Gayle, 31, of Walton Lane, won £1,000 and the Continuing Professional Development Award from the Institute of Financial Services after hundreds of entrants were whittled down to four.

An audit services manager at Skipton Building Society's main office in Skipton, Gayle attended an interview in London which included a presentation on professional development to a panel of senior finance personnel selected by the institute.

Gayle, who is married, was chosen as the winner of the £1,000 first prize, £500 of which must be spent on a development activity.

The runner up was from Mauritius, proving the worldwide appeal of the event.

Gayle intends to spend half of the money on a public speaking course and will treat herself with the other £500.

She said: "I had to do a presentation in London which was quite overbearing and I was pleased when it was over with. All chartered bankers were able to enter from across the world but we didn't get told how many people took part.

"I am pleased that I did it and obviously very happy that I won. It demonstrates my commitment to development but now I've won it I'm not allowed to enter again. After doing the presentation I think my public speaking is something to work on so that's what half of the money will go on."

The audit services manager graduated from Nelson and Colne College with a BTEC National Diploma in Business Studies in 1993.

She has been with the building society since 1994 and joined the audit section as a trainee auditor in September 1996. She was made audit services manager in June 2001.