A BUTCHER is hoping to beat a ban on his five-ring Olympic sausage sign by defiantly bringing out a new sign showing five squares.

Olympic officials failed to see the funny side of Dennis Spurr's original sign dated 2012 showing the five Olympic rings made from sausages.

They said he was breaching Olympic copyright by displaying the sign outside his Fantastic Sausage Factory shop in St Mary Street and that he would be for the high jump if he ignored yesterday's deadline to take it down. But Mr Spurr may have won the day by first taking down the offending sign and then replacing it with a new one - five Olympic-style squares made from sausages.

He said: "I've also put a new date on it, 2013, because by the time the time Olympic preparations and Weymouth's relief road are ready it will be 2013."

Mr Spurr explained that he only put his original five-ring sign up as a bit of fun.

He said: "I never thought anyone would get the hump. Then I was told I had to take it down because the Olympic committee didn't like me using the rings.

"I didn't pay much attention to that but then I got a visit from a woman who told me I had to take it down or Olympic officials would prosecute me.

"I thought that was a bit much and so did many of my customers, not to mention the support I've had from all over the world on the Internet. There's even a mention of what's happened to me on the official Olympic website. Anyway, they gave me until yesterday to take the sign down or face prosecution and I have taken the sign down. I've just put another one up with five squares in its place."

Mr Spurr condemned the way Olympic officials had stuck to the letter of the law rather than the spirit of the Games.

He said: "Isn't it shame that everything is about money. Never mind. It's a square world!"

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games said it did not comment on individual cases.