Two more families have told the Oxford Mail they may never see professional pictures of their families after a photographic studio went into administration.

Photographic company Olan Mills hit problems on Thursday, leaving scores of people hundreds of pounds out of pocket and facing the prospect of losing their family portraits.

The Loveridge family, of Headington, stand to lose £330 which they spent on a series of photographs taken in a session at the London Road, Headington, studio on December 9.

Karen Loveridge said: "I phoned the help line - which took me three hours to get through - to be told my photos are in production, but that a meeting was going on yesterday to see if they could release them but they cannot guarantee this.

"The day we went there were lots of other families who are going to be in the same boat.

"What I would like to know is, if I had not seen the Oxford Mail, when would they have contacted us as the shop closed on Thursday and it was in the paper on Saturday?"

David Naylor and his wife Diane took their daughters Ezri, three, and six-month-old Kacie, for a photo session at Olan Mills London Road studio last Wednesday.

It was the second session of a special package for four sittings which the family had paid for earlier in the year.

Following the latest sitting, Mr and Mrs Naylor of Barton, received four pictures on an A4 size piece of photographic paper at a cost of £40.

The following day, however, they read in the Oxford Mail that the company, which has studios across the UK, had gone into administration and that they may be unable to get their pictures.

A distraught Mr Naylor said he could not believe they had been been given a session and sold the photographs hours before the company went into administration.

He added: "Surely somebody somewhere knew what was going on and could have avoided Christmas heartbreak.

"There was a really beautiful picture of Ezri taken, in which she looked like an angel and she had light shining down on her. It was a really nice Christmas photograph, but now I don't think we will ever see it.

"I'm just totally devastated. It's not just us in this position either, there must be hundreds of other people out there in the same boat. It couldn't be at a worse time and £40 is a lot of money.

"It is so frustrating that there is nothing really that we can do about it. They are beautiful photographs captured in time and we are not going to get them for Christmas and maybe never."

A second Olan Mills studio in Oxford, at the Oxford Retail Park in Cowley, has also closed and six staff members face a bleak Christmas with no jobs and little chance of recouping their lost wages - according to the firm's administrators KPMG.

Yesterday the Oxford Mail tried repeatedly to contact the firm's customer helpline on 08457 585351, but was unable to get through.