A CAFE owner claims he has received death threats during a “hate campaign” following claims he was not paying staff properly.

Spencer Freedman was accused of offering cut price 99p breakfast deals at Grafters but only paying cut price salaries.

Mr Freedman, of London Road, Westcliff, said he has been forced to call in the police following claims on social media about him.

In one widely circulated post it was alleged four staff originally hired had quit after not being paid for months, an accusation Mr Freedman denies.

He contacted police after a series of abusive texts followed including one describing him as a “dead man walking”.

Mr Freedman said: “Essentially, there was a discrepancy in one of our staff’s pay, but that has been resolved and is being dealt with privately.

“It has badly affected us, and with these posts on social media it is turning into a hate campaign. We have a team of staff here who are all happy and being paid, we wouldn’t work as a business if that was not the case.

“The texts I have received are something else, some are totally vile and they are very threatening.”

Grafters initially opened in September, offering a full English for 99p.

Shortly after opening, the cafe began investigating a ‘pay it forward’ scheme to help feed Southend’s homeless, which saw a scheme launched with the Salvation Army.

Throughout, Mr Freedman has been very concious of making sure everything is “above board” refusing donations from customers - another reason why he claims the criticism is unfounded.

He added: “We have this scheme with the Salvation Army and we are trying to help the homeless, and we are being so careful to make sure we are above board.

“People are always coming in and offering us money for it, but we say no, it all has to be through the voucher scheme.

“We are very concious of everything being done legitimately.”

Concerns have been reported about staff payments.

A spokesman for Essex Police said: “We received a report of malicious communication at around 10am on Wednesday, October 10, after a man reported receiving threatening messages online.

“Anyone with information is asked to call Southend’s Local Policing Team on 101 quoting crime reference 42/147242/18 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.”