Window cleaner Steve Borlase – who became an arithmetic whiz after bumping his head as a child – says he can work out complex sums running into millions, but is struggling to find a job where he can use his skills.

Mr Borlase, of Woodcock Road, Warminster, has an IQ of 180. He is able to add, subtract, multiply and divide five-figure and six-figure numbers faster than most people can enter the sums into a calculator.

So the Wiltshire Times decided to put his rare talents to the test. And – in less than 90 seconds – he was able to complete this series of calculations: 53 x 7, 64 x 64, square root of 332, 19 x 19 / 3, 99 x 99 x 99, 7 x 21 x 29, and 47 x 49.

Mr Borlase, 39, who is also a professional pool player and has played for the England team, said: “I fell off some monkey bars when I was five and, just a couple of days later, something changed in me and I was able to do huge sums.

“I have never seen anyone else who can do this before. For the past year, I have been working as a window cleaner, but I would love someone to take me on and give me a job where I can use this skill.”

About one in every five million people have a skill comparable to that of Mr Borlase, but his mind-boggling maths talents have yet to be used for anything other than a handy shopping tally in the supermarket and as the butt of Christmas dinner jokes.

He said: “Sometimes, I have been shopping in Morrisons with friends and they have said to me, ‘Right, let me know when we get to £70.’ And I’ll add up all the shopping in my head as we go along.

“When we get to the cashier, I can tell her to the penny what the shopping will come to.

“Over Christmas dinner last year, there were 20 people and I was being tested by everyone.

“It’s quite incredible really, because I can get even the bigger numbers within a few minutes, without writing anything down.

“I can see all these numbers floating around in my mind and the brightest one is always the right answer.”

Despite his skills, Mr Borlase left school with a B grade in GCSE maths, because his abilities did not extend to other areas of maths, like algebra.

He added: “I’m carrying on with the day job and I’m an avid pool player, but it remains to be seen if I’ll end up doing something with maths.”