A DEFIANT market stall trader has vowed to 'fight until the end' after taking her battle to sell vegetables in pounds an ounces to crown court.

Janet Devers, of Colbrook Drive in Wanstead, was prosecuted by Hackney Council after insisting on pricing her produce in imperial pounds and ounces rather than using metric measurements.

The 63-year-old appeared at Thames Magistrates Court on Friday faced with 15 charges under the Price Marking and Weights and Measurements Act 1963, including one of using illegal scales at her Ridley Road stall.

She denied all of the offences, and will appear at Snaresbrook Crown Court next month.

The pensioner, whose mother started the business during the Blitz in 1940, said she felt she was being victimised by Hackney Council trading standards officers, and feared she could be ruined if she failed to win the case.

She said: "I just can't understand why Hackney Council have brought this prosecution against me, they are just needlessly wasting taxpayers' money.

"Traders like me work hard, six days a week to try and make a honest living, and it seems ridiculous to me that the council is wasting their time and money on this.

"They should be working instead, to improve conditions for traders at the market.

"I decided to plead not guilty to these charges, because I don't believe I have committed any offence.

"I'm running up huge solicitors fees by fighting this, so I face a massive bill if I don't win."

Hackney Council brought the prosecution against Mrs Devers despite a European Commission decision to allow imperial measurements to be used.

Her brother, Colin Hunt, who owns a stall in the same market, was one of the original five metric martrys,' convicted in 2000, for failing to display prices in kilograms.

Hackney Council's cabinet member for neighbourhoods, Cllr Alan Laing, said: "Last year's EU ruling means that imperial measurements will be allowed to be used alongside metric indefinitely, beyond the original 2009 deadline.

"However traders are still legally required to physically use metric scales. There has been no change to the law in that aspect. Hackney Trading Standards officers have been informing market traders