Steve Thoburn was given a six-month conditional discharge

Mr Thoburn, a greengrocer in Sunderland who died in 2004, was convicted for using scales showing only imperial weights.

The UK abandoned plans to ban imperial pricing when the EU ruled it could be displayed with the metric equivalent.

About 16,000 people signed the petition, which states that the EU decision undermines his conviction.

Since he was convicted the EU has backed down and only Steve ended up paying the price Neil Heron, Metric Martyrs

Metric Martyrs campaigners handed the document to Sunderland South MP Chris Mullin on Thursday.

Organiser Neil Heron said: "I think that 60 million people in this country now realise Steve Thoburn was wrongly convicted.

"Since he was convicted the EU has backed down and only Steve ended up paying the price.

"All we want is to rectify this and put the matter right."

The petitioners are also backing the case of Hackney market trader Janet Devers, who is accused of offering customers no alternative to imperial weights.

Council officers seized the 63-year-old's scales saying she failed to follow EU rules.

She will appear at Thames Magistrates' Court on Friday, to face 10 counts related to pricing issues, one charge of pricing solely in imperial quantities and two counts of using a machine "not passed as fit for use".