Revellers visiting a Purley pub have been hit with a drinks bill more than a month late – due to a bank error.

Customers paying with credit and debit cards at the Jolly Farmers were not being charged by HSBC because the machine that sends their card details to the bank was faulty.

And Ian Harris, one of the owners of the pub, said he lost business over the “nightmare”, which occurred over Christmas and new year.

It took the bank more than six weeks to fix the problem while the pub owners had no idea their customers were not being charged for their transactions.

The bank only informed the pub about the problem 10 days after it started, through a letter sent via second class post.

After promising to post a card to Jolly Farmers to fix the problem, HSBC then sent out the wrong card four different times.

The increasingly frustrated owners eventually convinced the bank to send them a new terminal.

It was only when it went online that they discovered people celebrating the festive season in the Jolly Farmers had not been charged.

Mr Harris said: "This all happened over Christmas and new year, which is our busiest time.

"Once we realised what had happened, we put up notices saying we could not accept payments by cards.

"We lost a lot of business because people saw the signs and walked out.

"HSBC has accepted full liability, it is talking about compensation because we have lost business and customers."

Mr Harris would not say how many people were affected or how much money was involved but wanted to reassure customers the problem has now been sorted out.

Meanwhile, a spokesman from HSBC said: "We apologise for the issues the Jolly Farmers pub faced during the Christmas period and the time it took to remedy the situation.

"We are currently reviewing this case and will work with the customer to ensure the problems are resolved as soon as possible."