EVENING Press staff beat competition from all over the country to scoop three prestigious awards.

Lisa Cook was named Graphic Artist of the Year at the Newsquest awards, while Dan Rutstein was declared joint winner in the Newcomer of the Year section for young journalists.

The hat-trick was completed when thisisyork, the Evening Press website, was declared Website of the Year for the second year in succession.

The awards were presented at the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford in front of editors and executives of Newsquest, the owners of the Evening Press and the largest newspaper group in England.

The work of Lisa, who also won an award in the Yorkshire Press Awards earlier this year, was described as an "outstanding entry, very impressive".

Judges were impressed by Dan's Internet drugs story - he was detained by North Yorkshire police after demonstrating the ease of importing cannabis.

Howard Davis, digital media manager, collected the award for website of the year from John Curley, chairman of Gannett, the owners of Newsquest.

The thisisyork website was described as a "winning site with clear navigation and design with a greater sense of focus overall than the other sites".

Howard said: "It is a great site. We have won this award twice in two years, next year I want to go for the hat-trick."

Feature writer Steve Lewis was a runner-up in his category while the Evening Press was a nominee in the Daily Newspaper of the Year section.

Editor Liz Page said of the awards: "We were up against around 200 other papers in the group and I am delighted that we have done so well. It is a real tribute to the hard work of our staff here."

picture- Howard Davis, Lisa Cook and Dan Rutstein with their awards