DAILY TELEGRAPH

Metric martyr Janet Devers drops appeal against conviction for using imperial measures

Janet Devers, a "metric martyr" market trader, has dropped her appeal against a conviction for selling fruit and vegetables in imperial measures.

Mrs Devers, 64, was last year found guilty of eight charges under the Weights and Measurements Act.

She had refused to replace imperial weighing scales on her fruit and vegetable stall at Ridley Road Market in Dalston, east London.

The market trader, from Wanstead, east London, was given a two-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay £5,000 costs following the case, which was brought by Hackney Council.

She had been due to challenge the convictions at an appeal hearing at London's Snaresbrook Crown Court next week. However, she and her lawyers have decided not to go ahead with the hearing.

"I'm glad it's all over, the last 18 months have been very stressful," Mrs Devers said. "I've decided to do the sensible thing and not go ahead with the appeal.

Mrs Devers secured a small victory earlier this month when four further charges of breaking metric laws were dropped after the prosecution offered no evidence against her.

She added: "I'm disgusted that Hackney Council did not back down, we had that victory in court earlier this month and we thought they would show some common sense but they haven't. I didn't want to cost the tax payer any more money by going back to court with this."

Neil Herron, the campaign director of the Metric Martyrs Defence Fund, said the partial victory had influenced the decision to scrap the further appeal. "We've dropped the appeal in light of the fact that we won in the trial earlier this month when no evidence was offered against Janet," Mr Herron said. "We didn't want Janet going through the trauma of another trial."

The European Union has ruled that British retailers can continue using imperial measures such as pints, pounds and miles, but some councils have continued to take legal action against people doing so.