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A PHOTOGRAPHER is going ape after his picture of a stunt biker “free-styling” in mid-air was printed on T-shirts sold by a high street store – with the rider’s head replaced by a monkey’s.

The shocking discovery came to light when friends of daredevil Arran Powley recognised the image on a children’s top, listed on the Next website.

Allan Potts from Glyndyfrdwy near Corwen, who is the official photographer for the Bolddog Freestyle Motorcross Display team, said he fears the “rip-off” could cost him work.

The 54-year-old is gearing up for a UK tour with “action sport collective,” Nitro Circus and said it could harm his reputation if they think he sold the picture to the retailer.

The father-of-three – who has suffered enough financial upheaval with the loss of his home and possessions in a fire last year – said: “The first I knew anything about this was on Wednesday night when friends of Arran Powley posted a picture of the T-shirt on my Facebook page. The original copyrighted image is so easy to recognise, there is absolutely no doubt they have ripped off my shot, stuck a monkey's head on the rider and mass produced it on a T-shirt selling for £5-£10.

“I feel awful for the rider because he is very well known in the FMX world and it must be embarrassing for him.”

Allan added: “I contacted Next to complain because it’s not fair that they can make money out of things like this without even contacting the copyright holder or offering any means of payment.”

The photo was taken at the Shrewsbury Show in 2010 and uploaded onto the official Bolddog FMX Team website by Allan.

A Next spokesman said: “Next is currently investigating the image in question. The image was supplied to us from an independent supplier and we had no reason to believe they did not have relevant copyright permission to use it. We are now in the process of investigating the source of it with the supplier and are in contact with Mr Potts to resolve this.”