Notorious kidnap mum Karen Matthews was surrounded by angry locals after claims she took photographs of children outside a town centre shop.

It happened in the area she was forced to relocate to following her release from prison for conspiring to have her then nine-year-old daughter Shannon kidnapped in what became a huge police investigation in 2008.

Matthews was spotted getting into an argument at bargain store Poundland. She now lives in a town hundreds of miles from her former Dewsbury home.

It’s claimed she was spotted becoming embroiled in a heated row with a woman inside the shop.

Police were called and spoke to Matthews and the other woman, who has not been named.

Witnesses later claimed Matthews was approached by a group who claimed she and another woman were taking photographs of their children close to the store.

A local mother said she spotted Matthews from the window of a bus as it travelled through the town centre.

She said Matthews and another woman appeared to be snapping photos of children on their phones before an angry mob stopped them.

Lauren Ballinger interviewing Karen Matthews and Craig Meehan during Shannon's disappearance in 2008

It’s understood they were insisting on taking Matthews’ phone and deleting the pictures of their children.

A spokesman for the Police said: “We were called at 2.45pm on 29 June to reports of an argument between two women in Poundland.

“Officers attended, both parties were spoken to and the incident was resolved. No offences have been reported.”

Matthews was jailed for the fake kidnap plot, which was a bid to gain from reward money.

After a mammoth police hunt Shannon was finally found on March 14, 2008, in a house which belonged to Michael Donovan, the uncle of Craig Meehan, who was Matthews’ boyfriend.

Both Donovan and Matthews were convicted of kidnapping, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice. They were both jailed for eight years.

She was forced to relocate down south after her release from prison. Her story was televised in a BBC show called The Moorside, which starred actress Sheridan Smith, last year.

Although her appearance has changed some mums had seen her and told others she was still living in the town leading to an outpouring of vitriolic abuse on social media.