A POPULAR York barber is celebrating after winning a court battle to get back into his old shop.

Last month the Evening Press reported on Michael Chapman's anger after he was denied access to the back room of the Fulford Road shop where he has been cutting hair and trimming beards for the past decade.

Mr Chapman, 60, had shut up shop for a fortnight while he went into hospital for an operation.

But when he left hospital he was horrified to discover that the locks had been changed and all his equipment had been removed.

Now, after a court ruled that he had been unlawfully evicted by the present owners, Douglas MacLeod and Chancellor Court Ltd, Mr Chapman is looking forward to resuming business as usual, continuing to rent the back room behind the chemist shop, which is planned for the front of the premises.

"I am absolutely delighted that justice - and the power of the press - have succeeded in getting me my business back.

"It's all worked out extraordinarily well. It's a case of the little man not being beaten by the big man," he said.

Mr Chapman's first action on hearing of his legal triumph was to book himself a break in Tenerife.

The holiday was as much for recuperation as for celebration, he said.

"I needed a good rest because it really knocks you for six, this sort of thing. But now I can't wait to get back to work again."

A court order has ruled that Mr MacLeod and Chancellor Court Ltd, who have admitted liability, should restore all equipment, plus fixtures and fittings, to the shop by 4pm on Monday.

A full hearing, to be held at York County Court in April, will decide how much compensation must be paid to Mr Chapman.

When approached by the Evening Press, Mr MacLeod declined to comment.

The news that the barber shop will soon be back in business was welcomed by local trader Ian Beilby, who was concerned about the prospect of another business disappearing in the area.

Mr Beilby, who owns a sweet shop and tobacconists which was set up by his grandfather in 1910, said: "As a shopkeeper, I am very pleased that the barber shop will stay as a local amenity."

He said: "We have lost a petrol station, a newsagents and a post office in the past few months, and to lose another business would have been terrible."

Updated: 10:36 Thursday, January 06, 2005