Abdullah Abdul-Majid, who owns Abdullah's restaurant, in Long Causeway, Peterborough city centre, said his business has suffered for the past two months because of a mystery problem with the power supply to the road.

But the biggest hit came over the festive period, when he had to ask 20 customers, who had been enjoying their meals, to leave early on Christmas Eve, when the power went out.

And on Boxing Day, one of his busiest days of the year, the restaurant was forced to close because of the power fault.

But Mr Majid is not the only person in Long Causeway to suffer.

Power supplier EDF Energy says a total of 18 customers have been hit by the power problem, which began when an underground cable developed a fault that proved difficult to locate and repair.

Mr Majid said: "We first started having problems in November, and have had seven or eight cuts or surges since then. Most of them last only an hour or so before coming back on, but it has been longer.

"But the final straw came on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day. These are the two biggest trading days for us of the year, with people finishing their Christmas shopping, or starting sales shopping, and we had to close.

"Not only that, but we also lost lots of stock, as the fridges and freezers are affected when we have power cuts.

"On Christmas Eve the power went out at 3pm, and didn't come back on until 1am. It was a similar story on Boxing Day.

"Because we were trying to make up for the profit lost on Christmas Eve, we had seven staff in on Boxing Day. It has cost a fortune as they had to stay in, even when we had the problems, as the power could have come back at any moment."

A spokeswoman for EDF Energy said: "EDF Energy would like to apologise to 18 customers in the Long Causeway area of Peterborough, who were without power from December 24 to December 25 due to a fault on a low voltage underground cable.

"Power was interrupted at 3.35pm on December 24, and restored to 12 customers by 10.30am on December 25.

"Our engineers attended to carry out a temporary repair so that power could be restored to the final six customers affected at 11.26pm that day. This fault had occurred on an intermittent basis since November 2, but had proved particularly difficult to pinpoint.

"Regrettably, the fault happened again on December 26, affecting power supplies to the same 18 customers from 12.04pm to 1.50pm.

"Our engineers have been working on site every day since, to locate, excavate and repair the damaged cable."