A furious shareholder at Chopsticks restaurant is taking legal action against a customer who sent a hoax e-mail claiming the venue's dishes contain rats.

John Roach said business has taken a nosedive after thousands of people saw the message that the rodents were being fried and served up instead of chicken.

The company's lawyers are in talks with the suspect's lawyers over allegations of libel, which Mr. Roach says could end up in the courts.

"It's an awful hoax. This is a sick joke," he told The Royal Gazette yesterday.

Mr. Roach said Chopsticks has never had a health and safety issue in the 25 years he has been helping run it and described the suggestion that he was annoyed as "the understatement of the year".

The e-mail claimed a butcher was caught red-handed chopping up rats in the Reid Street eaterie's basement when service workers called following reports of a nearby gas leak.

It contained pictures of rats being washed outside, cut up into pieces, deep fried and seasoned before being placed on a plate.

Mr. Roach, who received the message from a concerned customer last Friday, said: "My first thought, since I know Chopsticks doesn't have a basement, doesn't have an outside and doesn't have a rat situation at all in any way, shape or form, was that it was ludicrous.

"Immediately, I was ready to explode."

He tracked down the alleged hoaxer by painstakingly working his way backwards through the e-mail chain and contacting its recipients until he got to the source, explaining: "It took a while, but wouldn't you do that if it was your business?

"It's devastating to our loyal customers who have been with us all this time."

He estimated people would be 90 percent sure the e-mail was a hoax, but the suspicious 10 percent of their mind would convince them to eat elsewhere.

"You pay for dinner, you choose where to go," he said. "There are losses. It's only been four days, but part of it was the weekend. As of Monday, our sales were down."

Asked if he could offer some perspective on the loss of sales, he replied: "The only perspective is that somebody took the time on a company e-mail to send out a blatant lie, a malicious joke, that's been seen by thousands of people now."

He said everyone who forwarded the e-mail could be guilty of libel as well, but that he was only interested in pursuing the source. He declined to give any information about the suspect, other than to describe him as a customer.

"I don't like what's been done to me. Nobody would. I didn't do anything to this man," Mr. Roach added. "I didn't come into his home and rip it apart. I didn't go into his life and rip it apart."