A NORTH Yorkshire pub has gone continental this summer in a bid to keep up with its jet-setting regulars.

Staff at the Wentworth Arms, in Old Malton, are now accepting the euro - and customers get their change converted back into sterling. Pub owner Rick Mills said: "People don't cash euros in any more when they come back from a holiday, they keep them for the next time they go abroad.

"Customers were joking about whether we accepted the currency and we just thought it would be a good idea."

Rick admitted they'd thought about the euro as a joke at first.

"It is a bit gimmicky, but then people do want it, they are interested."

The bar could even become an unofficial exchange centre.

Rick said: "The bill is rung into the till as normal in pounds and then you press the euro button and it calculates it all. It converts it back and the change is given in sterling."

Updated: 10:28 Wednesday, June 25, 2003