Britain’s Got Talent stars, Bars and Melody, are being sued by a group member’s father, claiming they stole one of his songs.

The duo appeared on the 2014 series of the ITV show, with their debut album reached number one in the charts last year.

But now, the father of 15-year-old band member, Leondre Devries, has said he wrote the group’s song Hopeful, which is being sung without his permission.

He said, “I wrote Hopeful and it is a story of the struggles I have faced in my life and that gave the group international fame.

We have started legal action and their management have come back at me, saying the group wrote Hopeful, but it was me.”

The song has over 47 million views on YouTube and is the reason the boys shot to fame, sent straight to the semi-finals of the show by Simon Cowell.

Antonio Devries is a music producer in his own right, and claims the boys are being ‘exploited and overworked’ by their management.

Mr Devries said the final straw came for him when Bars and Melody changed their image for a more ‘edgy’ appearance, almost moving away from their anti-bullying statement.

“Their look now doesn’t strike me as the one you’d expect from anti-bullying ambassadors. I think they are being moulded into something else.”

Last week, Mr Devries, who is being supported by Bristol-based rapper and promoter D-Jukes, took sole control of Bars and Melody’s social media accounts.

The boys responded by saying: “we please ask that you don’t send any hate or bad feelings towards the artists that were posted about from our accounts. It was not the artists who were responsible for this and therefore shouldn’t be taken out on the artists involved. As you all know, bullying in any form is really wrong and we definitely do not condone it.”

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