The claim that Steve Thoburn from Sunderland got a criminal record for selling goods (bananas) in imperial units is well-established by multiple sources, including court records, BBC reporting, and Wikipedia's account of the case. In July 2000, Thoburn sold 34p worth of bananas at 25p per pound to an undercover trading standards officer using imperial scales that had been de-stamped (no longer certified for trade use). Sunderland City Council prosecuted him, and in April 2001 he was convicted at Sunderland Magistrates' Court of two offences under the Weights and Measures Act 1985 (as amended by the 1994 Units of Measurement Regulations, which implemented EU Directive 80/181/EEC). He received a six-month conditional discharge. Regarding the "criminal record" element: the UK Sentencing Council explicitly states that "A discharge means that the person is released from court without any further action. But they will still get a criminal record." A conditional discharge is a conviction under UK criminal law and thus does result in a criminal record (though it becomes "spent" after a period). One nuance: Sunderland City Council stated that "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." The precise legal charge was use of non-compliant weighing equipment, not the act of selling bananas per se. However, the underlying cause was clearly his sale of goods in imperial units — he was caught because he sold bananas weighed in pounds and ounces on imperial scales. The two are inseparably linked: using imperial scales to sell by the pound was the activity that triggered the prosecution. Sources: BBC News, "Trader guilty of metric law breach" (https://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1269043.stm); BBC News, "Metric martyr market trader dies" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/wear/3511428.stm); Wikipedia, "Thoburn v Sunderland City Council" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoburn_v_Sunderland_City_Council); UK Sentencing Council, "Discharges" (https://sentencingcouncil.org.uk/about-sentencing/types-of-sentence/discharges/); The Guardian, "Metric martyr dies" (https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/mar/15/1); The Independent, "Metric Martyrs: The story of the Sunderland greengrocer prosecuted over a bunch of bananas" (https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/uk-news/brexit-eu-steve-thoburn-metric-martyr-b1922599.html); The Northern Echo, "Not a gram of comfort for lbs and oz trader" (https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/7113068.not-gram-comfort-lbs-oz-trader/); GOV.UK, "Discharges" (https://www.gov.uk/tell-employer-or-college-about-criminal-record/discharges)