Decorating the house with beautiful photos of a new-born child is a key task for proud parents – but it proved problematic for one new mum after a Watford shop refused to hand over her precious snaps because they were 'too good'.

Nurse Lauren Breed and husband Matthew arranged a photoshoot with daughter Madison to celebrate becoming parents for the first time.

Family friend and professional photographer Katrina Matthews took the special snaps and sold them to the couple to print and cherish.

But when Mrs Breed, 28, took the high quality digital images to Watford ASDA, staff in the print shop refused to hand them over because the 28-year-old could not prove she owned the copyright.

Mr Breed told the Standard: "We were given a memory stick with all the photos on it and wanted to get them printed.

"So my wife went to Asda to print them off. She handed it over, and went for a coffee with our four-week old daughter.

"When she came back the photos were printed but they wouldn't give them to her. My wife insisted they were hers - they're of our daughter.

"But they said 'we believe there's copyright on them. They look too professional for you to have done them’."

The disgruntled dad, 26, from Hemel Hempstead said his angered wife took the snaps over to Boots.

He said: “She got them printed just fine. My wife was annoyed. She had waited about an hour and 20 minutes, during which time she couldn't feed the baby."

ASDA apologised for the mix-up and explained why staff at the St Albans Road supermarket initially declined to hand the photos over.

The company said: “Due to copyright issues anything other than a normal amateur photograph is assessed by a colleague in store.

"We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause, but will of course process any photographs where a customer can provide proof of copyright.”