Bermuda insurance executive Mr. Mark Hardy.

Mr. Hardy, a bankruot British accoutnant who presided over the failed Focus insurance group, has been waging a lone campaign against giant accountancy firm, Coopers & Lybrand.

Mr. Mitchell this month wrote to officials in the Department of Trade and Industry and to the Institute of Chartered Accountants' Department of Professional Conduct, complaining about Coopers.

In a letter to Mr. Jonathan Evans, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Corporate Affairs, Mr. Mitchell refers to "what appears to be a series of manoeuvres by Coopers & Lybrand to get round the partnership regulations when it suits them and their partners to take on Government business.

"This is being done with the tacit acceptance of the Institute and in such a way that it calls in question their role as auditors in other matters,'' he said.

"If the Institute is not going to act in the matter then it does require action by your department to inquire into the legality and acceptability of what Coopers are doing.'' That same day, the British MP had written to Mr. G. M. Ives, the director of the Department of Professional Conduct at the Institute saying that Mr.

Hardy's information indicates that "Coopers & Lybrand are playing ducks and drakes with the partnership rule in their efforts to take on lucrative Government business''.

"It also indicates that the Institute is reluctant to deal with the matter.

Should it not be treated as a disciplinary matter with a proper inquiry into the acceptability of these arrangements?'' The Independent on Sunday this week reported that the alleged discrepancies in Coopers' partnership arrangements have again been dismissed by Coopers. A Coopers' spokesman "rejected the suggestion that Mr. Mitchell's high profile intervention would assist Mr. Hardy's campaign''.

The spokesman said: "We will deal with these actions when they come to court on Thursday. I imagine the outcome will be the same as every other time Mr.

Hardy has been to court. He tried to get Coopers wound up, and he was thrown out.

"He tried to interfere with the Joint Disciplinary Scheme hearing into Coopers, and he was thrown out. He went to court, too, Thursday and he lost.'' Mr. Hardy was scheduled to be in the UK courts this week for 44 matters involving criminal proceedings in which he is trying to take action against a host of individuals.