Donations made to Mitch Winehouse for the Amy Winehouse Foundation have had to be returned as somebody else had already registered the name.

“Instead of allocating funding I am having to send cheques back because we don’t have a bank account in that name,” he wrote on Twitter, hitting out at the person who "stole our foundation name".

The father of the late singer announced his intention to set up a foundation in Amy’s name at her funeral last month and has so far met with the Home Office and will meet with the heath minister in September.

Mitch Winehouse advised that Martin McCann registered the domain name and paid £160 to register the name with Companies House, later tried to sell it back to him. Winehouse used Twitter to tell followers that he had lawyers looking into the situation, and late last night he announced via Twitter that the name was now in his posession. An official announcement is to be made later today.

McCann told the Sun newspaper he had not done anything wrong, and said: “Anybody could have. It only takes the click of a mouse. I'm not ashamed or embarrassed. Detach yourself from emotions and think business.”

Meanwhile a preview clip of a song Amy recorded with Tony Bennett before her death has emerged on Youtube. When the song is released as a single the profits will be donated to the Foundation.