AN engineering company founded by Robert Hunt-Grubbe of Potterne has won a prestigious award for designing a hi-tech device used in oil and gas wells.

Mr Hunt-Grubbe and colleagues at Sondex Limited received the Queen's Award for Enterprise last Friday.

The award for innovation, has been given in recognition of the company's multi-finger imaging tool.

This was originally developed in 1990 and went into commercial production in 1995 and it now makes up a third of the company's sales.

The device measures corrosion or damage in oil and gas wells and is used by companies surveying wells on behalf of oil companies.

Mr Hunt-Grubbe, of Eastwell House, founded the company in 1983 when he was with the department of cybernetics at Reading University.

With a small team of engineers he designed instruments for measuring the production of oil wells in Iran. The company grew quickly and it now employs more than 60 people at its base at Bramshill, Hampshire.

Mr Hunt-Grubbe, 62, who worked on the design of the multi-finger imaging tool, is a non-executive director of the company, which has an annual turnover of £9million.

He said: "I'm very happy that a British product has received worldwide acclaim and I'm proud to have been able to continue the tradition of British engineering excellence."

He added: "It is a unique instrument and it is able to detect damage, corrosion and breaks in oil well casing, preventing potential environmental damage and ensuring efficient recovery of oil and gas."

The device has also been recognised as a Millennium Product and is on display at the Millennium Dome in London.

In 1999 Mr Hunt-Grubbe was successful in a competition to find the country's best entrepreneurs.

He won the category for industrial products in the southern region.