Search engine giant Google has fixed a mistake which a restaurateur claimed was bringing his business to its knees.

Ian McGregor, who runs the Bangkok Bistro in Penrith, found when people were searching for the restaurant's opening times Google listed it as being "permanently closed", despite the fact that it was not and had traded without interruption since he took it over last October.

After the story was featured in the News & Star yesterday Mr McGregor said he was contacted by supporters and Google itself, which has now corrected the mistake.

Anyone searching for the 50-seater Thai restaurant in the search engines will now find its location on Poet's Walk as well as its day and evening opening times.

Mr McGregor, 52, thanked everyone who had show him support.

"I am very happy and I believe it is as a result of what you [the News & Star] have done and, off the back of that, all of the people pressure that has been mounted.

"I have had lots and lots of phone calls from people in Cumbria."

He added that many of the people who had spoken to him said they had also contacted Google to inform them of the mistake.

The restaurant has been extremely quiet this summer, which Mr McGregor has put down to the online error.

"A lot of people will decide to go the Bangkok Bistro and then log on to Google to check what times we are open. Before now they would have seen that it is closed and for some people that would have been the end of it."

Mr McGregor added that, so far, his August business had been similar to that done in February or March - traditionally quiet periods in the restaurant industry.

Related: Google ‘killing my business’ with wrong search result

He has let one member of staff go because of the slump in trade and estimates that takings dipped between £4,000 and £5,000 in three weeks as a result of the mistake.

Mr McGregor does not know how the mistake appeared online and has suggested that it could possibly have been the result of someone who had a grudge again the business.

He made several attempts to contact Google to correct the error but these came to nothing.

Mr McGregor has looked into bringing a legal claim for damages against Google but has ruled this action out as too expensive because it would be likely to cost hundreds of thousands of pounds.

A spokesman for Google did not comment on what had happened but did confirm that the company had amended the error.