A BURY chocolate shop has apologised after refusing to write the first name of a three-year-old boy  on an Easter egg for fear of breaching copyright laws - because he is named after Manchester United star Wayne Rooney.

Staff at Thorntons, in the Mill Gate shopping centre, have said sorry after they refused to ice her son’s first name, Rooney, onto the egg because of “copyright issues”.

His bemused mother, Jo-anne Scholes, aged 43, said as a compromise staff agreed to write the youngster’s full name, Rooney Scholes, onto the chocolate.

Ms Scholes, from Rochdale, said the egg had been bought for her son by a family friend as a surprise.

She said: “It’s just pathetic that they wouldn’t let a child have his name on an Easter egg for fear of upsetting Wayne Rooney.”

A spokesman for Thorntons said: “Thorntons apologises for the service provided to Ms Scholes at the weekend.

“The company does abide by copyright laws but these were not applicable in this case.

“Our free personalising Easter eggs service is something that our customers enjoy and are usually delighted with and we are very sorry that this was not the case in this instance.”

Ms Scholes, who also coincidentally shares the surname of United legend Paul, is a lifelong fan of the team and has a tattoo of Eric Cantona on her arm.

She also has to cats called Cantona and Berbatov, which are named after former players.