Business advisor GARRY ELLIOTT has taken over as chairman of the 1,900-member Tyne and Wear Society of Chartered Accountants.

Mr Elliott, 44, who lives in Hartlepool, is a partner at Baker Tilly, in Newcastle.

Born in Easington, he attended Hartlepool Grammar School and completed an accountancy foundation course at Teesside Polytechnic.

Married with two teenage sons, he is a Middlesbrough Football Club season ticket holder.