A FATHER says he’s been banned from Aldi for taking photographs of fruit on his mobile phone.

Nathan Winson, from Boscombe, was at the discount supermarket taking snaps for his five-year-old son’s school project when he was approached by staff.

Recalling last week’s incident at Aldi, Palmerstone Road, Boscombe, Nathan told the Echo: “The manager came up to me and told me I couldn’t take photos and would I delete them.

“I was really surprised, I was just taking pictures of fruit. I thought ‘stuff this’ and decided to walk out.”

As he was leaving the store, retail worker Nathan, aged 35, says he was prevented from exiting by a security guard.

“I explained to him what I was doing,” said Nathan “That I was taking pictures on my phone for my son’s school project, but he said I wasn’t allowed to and told me to delete them.

“I was made to feel like a criminal, the manager and this security bloke wouldn’t let me go out. In the end, I thought stuff this, its not worth the hassle, and just deleted them.

“But as I walked out the manager said ‘don’t bother coming back in, you’re banned’.”

Nathan had wanted to photograph raspberries, strawberries, blackberries and cherries to help with his son’s show-and-tell project school project.

The youngsters were asked to find, either at the shops or at home, three fruits or vegetables that begin with the same sound. Then they had to either draw them, photograph them or write about them.

Nathan explained: “I thought, I’ll go and take the pictures, pick my boy up from school, he can get back, draw the pictures from my photos and write it up. When I was at work later on I said ‘guess what I’ve just been banned for? Taking pictures of fruit’.

“ My colleagues thought I was messing around, its unbelievable, I’ve been banned from Aldi for taking pictures of fruit.”

He later took photos of the offending berries at another local supermarket.

An Aldi spokesman said: “We thank the customer for bringing this to our attention. We are looking into this with the store.”