The owner of a Tottenham funeral firm claims his business has fallen victim to a cyber bully leaving "fake" feedback on a review website.

Damian Melville, 33, opened Melville and Daughters funeral directors in West Green Road two years ago to ensure future job security for his children, aged five and 12.

Mr Melville, who lives in Enfield Chase, first started noticing the less than favourable reviews on the popular business review website, Qype, in December, but is now seeking criminal action against the internet user.

The claims, which show up as the first result on search engine Google, include information about how the supposed customer was “hounded” by the firm four days after the funeral to pay for overdue payments.

The Qype user also complained about the late arrival of the horse-drawn hearse and the use of an ill-fitting wig on the body of a deceased person.

However, Mr Melville believes the person has never even used his business, as many of the comments are factually incorrect.

The anonymous reviewer, who first said he attended a funeral, but later changed his story by claiming he was a family member of the deceased, said the horses were late because Mr Melville said they had to come from an earlier funeral in east London.

Mr Melville is adamant that all his horses come from Great Yarmouth and he would not have been so unprofessional to speak to a mourning guest in such a way.

The father-of-two said: “It is really stressful – if a mistake has been made, which is rare, I rectify it. If someone is reading it, you can think, ‘I am not going there.’

“It is such a big decision when you are choosing a funeral directors. If a single thing is wrong, people won’t go. It can spiral out of control.”

Mr Melville, who grew up in Hornsey, is taking legal action with KwikChex, a company dedicated to protecting the online reputation of business owners.

To date, he has incurred more than £500 in legal costs, but KwikChex has managed to get the posts removed from the review site and have tracked the user down as living in the Shepherd’s Bush area.

The funeral director says he was unsure how much business he has lost as a consequence of the poor reviews.

He said: “One client said he saw a review, but they chose to ignore it. It is difficult to say how many people have seen it and haven’t seen through it.

“It has been quite damaging, but the extent of the damage I will never know. My reputation is everything and it is quite distressing.”

Chris Emmins, who works for KwikChex, said: “Whilst the circumstances may seem comical to some, the gravity of the situation for Melville and Daughters is exceptional.

“The services they provide are to say the least sensitive and they need to be seen as caring and diligent. But their current online profile has been greatly damaged.”

With up to 18 million users each month, Qype is Europe’s largest review site, and reviews businesses in more than 166,000 places throughout the world.