THE WORLD'S smallest pinhole colour covert camera, with sound, is now available in Newport.

City IT consultant Rob Edmunds has secured an exclusive deal with a Chinese company to market the product.

He said: "This is an exciting moment for me but it is only a small part of my company SupporTech."

The former Bassaleg schoolboy, who started out at 17 as a trainee fingerprint specialist with the Metro-politan Police in London, and then switched to the pub trade, becoming the youngest manager in the UK at the age of 21, has finally found his niche in life with computers.

Rob, who lives with his partner and family at Crawford Street, has quickly built a reputation for solving problems with computer systems - not only for his blue chip clients but also for the many local companies he services.

He admits he has no particular hobbies. "I suppose you could say my work is my hobby," he said. But while that focus in life may seem a bit strange to many, for Rob, the need to be constantly updated in a many faceted environment is absolutely essential. "You can't know too much in a situation like this," he said.

As a result of this dedication to his business, Support-Tech provides not only top quality support services for businesses and home PC users but can carry out full-on-site repair and will build a system of your design and choice as well as upgrading systems and handling website design.

This unending battle to be ahead of the game holds no fears for Rob. He learnt his trade the hard way - two and half years as a technical support adviser for NTL in an award-winning call centre with 40 engineers under his control. He then became an IBM field engineer providing contract and on-call services to such clients as Lloyds TSB, Thomson tours and CaseNewHolland.

His bid to go it alone has seen a healthy turnover each year and a real demand for his company's services.

It's not so strange that word-of-mouth has built up his client list. "I trust that if a company is unhappy I shall be the first to hear about it, yet if a customer is satisfied I just ask they refer me to other clients or personal friends," said Rob.

He is proud of the fact that SupporTech is able to provide the same level of support services as giants IBM and NTL but at costs that are affordable to small businesses and home users.

An important part of this company is its ability to audit company computer systems in cases of use of illegal software and abuse of computers by employees.

SupporTech will audit computers for stored files that may contain suspect or illegal images and is able to produce reports showing which websites have been accessed as well as reports on email usage.

Rob covers the whole of South Wales and Bristol and has on hand some 15 freelance engineers - all well trained and security cleared professionals - who can respond within two hours to a serious problem.

"I want to grow this business and I see my future with a workshop or shop premises and even more efficient service than we have now. "It's good at the moment but like everything else it can always get better."