MINER'S son Owen Oyston who worked his way up into a millionaire, was facing retiremnt in jail last night (May 22).

He was sentenced to six years imprisonment for the rape and indecent assault of a girl who was only 16 at the time of the offence.

Oyston was the miner's son who became a millionaire through a network of estate agencies which he sold for a price "beyond the imagination."

Oyston was born in County Durham, moving to the Fylde Coast with his family when he was two. He was to become, according to Business magazine, "the most famous man in Lancashire."

Leaving St Joseph's RC College at 16 to try his hand at acting in London, he lived on a pint of milk every two days for a time.

He eventually landed the role of a barrister in Granada TV's Crown Court. After making little headway on the stage, he threw in the towel.

In 1960, Oyston returned to Blackpool with £7 in cash and four gallons of petrol in his Jaguar.

His parents were about to sell their house and he struck up a friendship with the estate agent.

He was soon selling property on commission only but was unsuccessful in applying for a partnership. He advertised four houses in the local paper on his own account and was fired.

The Oyston Estate Agency was born and went from strength to strength - after 20 years in the trade it claimed to be the "largest family-owned estate agents in Britain."

Eventually, with 97 Oyston offices, covering almost every town in the North West, he sold the firm in 1987 to Royal Insurance for a price "beyond my imagination."

Oyston had cast his business net wide, gaining a reputation for being an early bird. He was early into cable TV, early into commercial radio.

He battled against unemployment as unpaid chairman of Lancashire Enterprises. In addition, he rescued the left-wing newspaper News On Sunday, an ill-fated enterprise which attacked the Government head-on. He kept the paper afloat through the period before a general election and claimed this angered political opponents

Other business interests included Lancashire's Red Rose Radio, which he founded and turned into a chain of commercial radio stations which gave him partial control of the Miss World contests.

He saved a chain of glossy "Life" magazines from bankruptcy and he now controls Radio Belfast, Bay Radio and Blackpool Football Club.

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