A WEBSITE offering clients the chance to download DIY divorces has helped 5,000 couples to untie the knot.

Since it was launched three years ago by Swindon businessman Mark Keenan, the site has attracted thousands of clients from across the country and from oversees.

His firm Online Divorce allows couples to separate without the need for costly lawyers.

Mr Keenan says one of his customers was a well-known American actor living in the UK, who has asked to remain anonymous.

He has also helped many people on low incomes to end their marriages as well as expatriates, who cannot get easy access to UK legal advice.

Family law specialist Mr Keenan, 35, who started the company from a spare room, claims the firm has saved clients a total of £4 million.

Mr Keenan, who is a divorcee himself, although he has since remarried, said: "We have made people aware that you don't need to go through a lawyer to divorce.

"We offer a package which manages the whole process from start to finish.

"For the last 100 years, the traditional place to get legal advice has been the high street solicitor, but times are changing.

"The net is a great way to give away information for nothing."

In September, Mr Keenan launched an online wills service.

He started the firm during the dotcom boom of 1999, but while many companies went bust, Mr Keenan's has gone from strength to strength.

He now employs three full time staff at his offices in Abingdon.

Couples accessing the website at www.divorce-online.co.uk can download a software package which takes care of the administrative side of arranging an uncontested divorce.

Mr Keenan has just heard that his firm has been awarded the government's Community Legal Services Commission Quality Mark.