AN employee of Michelle Mone attempted to manipulate the public image of his boss by deleting unwelcome entries on her Wikipedia page while leaving inaccurate information relating to the buy-out of one of her businesses.

Mark Hassan-Ali, a PR professional who manages Ms Mone's private office and business affairs, admitted he had been behind an account that made a series of changes to the page on Tuesday, in what is a clear breach of the online encyclopaedia's guidelines.

He deleted references to controversy arising from her appointment as the UK Government's start-up czar, after leading business figures questioned her suitability for the post and called into question her record in the private sector.

Mr Hassan-Ali, a director at Ms Mone's firm MJM Media Limited, also removed a reference to her pledge to leave Scotland if it became independent and information about a tweet she wrote during the London riots in which she said participants did not deserve human rights.

While members of the public can edit Wikipedia, the website has strict rules over impartiality. Stevie Benton, head of external relations at Wikimedia UK, the national charity that supports and promotes Wikipedia, said he suspected Ms Mone's page had been subjected to 'Wiki Washing', meaning an article had been changed to make it more favourable to its subject.

Mr Hassan-Ali also deleted references to Ms Mone, who is expected to be named a Tory peer, faking qualifications to gain a job at Labatt beer company, which she has publicly admitted. Instead, he wrote that Ms Mone had to find full time work after leaving school at 15, "which encouraged her entrepreneurial spirit to blossom" and that his boss "excelled herself" at the brewer before being made redundant.

When contacted by The Herald, Mr Hassan-Ali admitted he had made the changes and said he had corrected inaccuracies. He said that "anyone can write whatever you like" on Wikipedia, when in fact, information should be provided by impartial sources.

Mr Hassan-Ali ended the call before it could be established whether Ms Mone had ordered the edits.

Despite claiming that he had been correcting mistakes and updating the page, he left some inaccurate information untouched. He did not correct a claim that Ms Mone bought her ex-husband Michael out of their business MJM International for £24 million, despite both parties saying the figure is not accurate and Mr Mone stating he received "nothing like" the sum.

The £24 million figure, which made its way into tabloid headlines and suggested the business was worth around £50m, fuelled Ms Mone's reputation as a successful multi-millionaire entrepreneur which has been called into question by senior figures in business and the accounts of the small, loss-making companies she is associated with.

Mr Benton said that information should not be removed by someone who is the subject of a Wikipedia article or a person with close links to it.

He added: "In this case, it appears that information was removed by someone connected to Michelle Mone. Wiki Washing is not allowed because Wikipedia is an encyclopedia. The information it contains should be backed up by reliable and neutral sources. Wikipedia articles should be written in a neutral point of view and this includes links to negative information as well as positive.

"In this case, because it appears the content was removed by someone connected with the subject, this would be viewed as a conflict of interest... This is against Wikipedia's rules because it should be written in a neutral point of view."

A spokesman for Ms Mone declined to comment.

The edits to the Wikipedia page come as Ms Mone appeared on Australian TV, where she was described as "one of the most successful entrepreneurs in Britain" with a net worth of almost £24 million. The programme, The Morning Show, also repeated the claim that Ultimo, which Ms Mone co-founded, supplied the bras worn by Julia Roberts in the film Erin Brockovich despite it being dismissed by the film's makers.