Builder Gary Bates was so fed up with his wife's nagging he put an ad in Trade-It magazine and tried to sell her!

After getting a tongue lashing from wife Donna, Gary placed a spur of the moment ad in the Trade-It magazine.

He described her as "very high maintenance – some rust."

To Gary's astonishment, he received a host of calls from men offering to take her off his hands.

"I didn't think anyone would ring up but I've had loads of people calling up about her," said Gary, of Orchard Avenue, Ebley, near Stroud.

The 38-year-old was watching a TV soap when Donna, 40, suddenly piped up about something, he said.

"She was nagging me for doing something so I just thought I'd put an ad in to get rid of her," said self-employed builder Gary.

He got at least six or seven calls before Donna rumbled what was going on. When he told her what he'd done Donna gave him "a bit of an ear-bashing" for it.

Gary added: "She's seen the funny side of it now."

But he'd better watch out because Donna, who works for City Plumbing in Gloucester, is plannign to get her own back.

She said: "I accepted it as the joke it was. If you take offence at something like that you shouldn't really be married, should you?"

The couple, who wed last June, have children from previous marriages. Donna is mum to James, 20 and Oliver, 14 while Gary has two daughters, Jessica, four, and Bethany, three, who live with their mum.

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