A MORECAMBE butcher is prepared to become a "metric martyr" in his fight to keep imperial weights and measures.

Steve Fretwell from Bare has been closely following a landmark case in Sunderland where greengrocer Steven Thoburn faces a £2,000 fine or possible jail sentence for flouting new metric laws.

Because Steve has also refused to convert his scales, and still serves customers in pounds and ounces, he too could become a target for prosecution.

"The whole thing is a farce and a complete waste of taxpayers' money," said Steve, who runs the butcher shop on Princess Crescent with his councillor brother, John.

"We've listened to our customers and they want us to serve them in pounds and ounces. If customers don't want to buy in metric measurements I don't see why I should change just because some Eurocrat tells me to. I can't see them getting away with it anyway because the 1985 Weights and Measures Act allows retailers to sell in pounds and ounces."

Steve is a member of the British Weights and Measures Association and an activist with Business Against Metric, an organisation that recently staged a protest in London.

"We've received plenty of support from customers," said John. "One regular customer, Barbara Lancaster, has knitted an Imperial Imp which we've decided to give away in a competition. We're asking people to suggest a suitable name for £1 which will then go towards St John's Hospice, the Metric Martyr Fund and the British Weights and Measures Association."

He joked: "The other prize is a holiday in Brussels paid for by Sunderland Council."