ON April 9 Steven Thoburn was found guilty of weighing his customers' orders on imperial scales. Now a criminal offence to use imperial measures, Steven Thoburn has a criminal record for selling a pound of bananas.

Judge Morgan's judgment clearly stated "that in passing the 1972 European Communities Act, Parliament surrendered its sovereignty to the European Union."

Steven Thoburn and four other 'metric martyrs' are to mount a legal challenge to this decision, to be heard in the Court of Appeal, London, in November.

Compulsory metrication, which directly and indirectly affects everyone and has had enormous cost implications for many businesses, was carried out by stealth and was never debated before Parliament nor voted on by our 659 elected representatives.

A 21-minute committee meeting by 14 MPs on a select committee is not the way to remove a system of measurement that is part of our everyday lives. Honesty, accountability and transparency should be of paramount importance to our politicians and the shambolic way the metrication programme has been handled, sadly, displays none of these.

NEIL HERRON, Metric Martyrs Defence Fund, Sunderland.