A bitter battle is raging at high-end tailors Rhodes & Beckett between its owners and the private equity group that was supposed to be supporting it, with accusations of fraud, unpaid bills and that the company's entire website was "held to ransom".

The company, which was rescued out of administration less than two years ago, wrote to customers on Tuesday apologising for "disruptions to our ordering and delivery systems in the past few months".

Rhodes & Beckett is locked in a dispute with a backer.

Rhodes & Beckett said it suspected its website, emails, inventory and shipping system had been "sabotaged by a Singaporean company named Rockstarz, who was the previous supplier of our IT".

The high-end suit and shirt maker was in dispute with Rockstarz over "possible theft of intellectual property, theft of inventory, company funds and corporate fraud", which had been referred to police, the letter said.