A young man hailed for his maths expertise deliberately snubbed Oxbridge to teach himself to become a winner.

Thomas Garcia-Quismondo, 23, was yesterday acclaimed as one of the UK's top A-level students, receiving a national award for getting the highest marks for statistics.

He revealed he had spurned the country's most prestigious universities in favour of tutoring himself at home.

Thomas, from Worthing, achieved A grades in maths, physics and computing in his A-levels at Brighton and Hove Sixth-Form College.

He was studying an Open University degree in maths when he decided to take his statistics course.

Thomas and 12 other finalists, including student of the year Peter Clayburn, travelled to London to be presented with medals by award organisers and exam board the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance.

Thomas, a web site developer, said: "I left Brighton and went to work for Star Computers in Seaford.

"I was doing an Open University degree and started doing computing modules but I became more interested in the maths modules and did another A-level to keep my maths up to standard.

"With Open University, they send textbooks, multimedia, you get tutorials but they're optional and then you send in assignments and do standard exams. I've been doing it since 2000.

"With the statistics A-level, it's perfectly possible to enrol as a private candidate. You find a college prepared to take you as an external candidate and that's it. It just means they don't teach you, you teach yourself. I just prefer it that way.

"One of the reasons is, if I wanted to go to Oxbridge, it's not down to just A-levels. You have to do well in an interview.

"If I had wanted to go, my grades would not have guaranteed me a place. I don't like the idea of presenting myself like that."

With his statistics A-level completed, Thomas now intends to become a Master of Science in maths and possibly work in research.

He added: "In the past few years, the number of under-25s that choose Open University has gone up significantly.

"That's more to do with student debt and not wanting the lifestyle. More people want to go into work and earn money while studying. Ten years ago it would have been more unique for someone my age not to go off to university.

"I don't think I have a natural flair for maths that some people have. They achieve complex things very quickly. I just got on with it."