METRIC martyr Steven Thoburn yesterday lost his landmark battle to sell his fruit and veg in pounds and ounces.

The case, sparked by the sale of a 34p bunch of bananas, could now leave campaigners facing a legal bill of £175,000 and has sparked a bitter political row.

Tory trade and industry spokesman Alan Duncan MP weighed in, saying: "This whole case has been a complete waste of money.

"The State has persecuted a decent bloke for no good reason."

But Euro-MP Simon Murphy, Labour leader in the European Parliament, said: "This ruling simply confirms what we already knew.

"With four out of five weighing scales in the UK trading in metric, the metric martyr is out of step with the modern world."

The 36-year-old market stall holder was prosecuted by Sunderland City Council's trading standards department for two offences under the Weights and Measures Act 1985.

At the heart of his defence was the claim that European legislation should not be allowed to overrule an Act of Parliament, as had happened when Europe's Units of Measurement 1995 amended the original Act.

But Judge Bruce Morgan, who described the case as one of Byzantine complexity, said the country had "joined the European club and by doing so has agreed to be bound by the rules and regulations of that club".

Mr Thoburn, of Association Road, Sunderland, faced a maximum £1,000 fine for each of the two offences, but was given a six-month conditional discharge.

Judge Morgan said: "I believe he is a decent hard-working man and he did what he did because he believed he was right."

A visibly stunned Mr Thoburn said after the hearing he would have to consider whether to take his case to the Divisional Court of Appeal.

Sunderland City Council said in a statement: "Mr Thoburn was not prosecuted for selling a pound of bananas, but was taken to court for using scales which could only weigh in imperial units rather than both metric and imperial.

"It is no part of the council's purpose to seek to bankrupt this particular defendant in what has clearly been a test case.

"The council has endeavoured to act magnanimously by not seeking an order for its cost at this stage."