The Duchess of Cornwall's efforts to get into the festive spirit don't seem to have met with everyone's approval.

When Camilla joined carol singers in a London shopping centre a man from the city council approached her to say she was making too much noise.

"You're singing too loud, you're making too many decibels – I don't want any more singing," he told her.

The scrooge then launched into a version of La Donna e Mobile from Verdi’s Rigoletto, prompting the Duchess, who by now had realised the joke was on her, to burst out laughing.

The party-pooping 'official' turned out to be Howard Ellis from the tenor group Incognito.

The evening was expected to raise at least £10,000 for the DecAid charity, a national appeal for service charities that help current and former members of the Armed Forces who served in Afghanistan and their families.

She told the crowd: "I'm a very proud patron of DecAid – young people doing their finest.

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photo:© Rex