A FURIOUS restaurant owner who lost £2,000 of trade after a power cut, has slammed energy company EDF for refusing to give him compensation.Freddie Yousef, owner of the Acropolis Greek restaurant in Upper Orwell Street, Ipswich, claims he lost thousands of pounds when a mains power cable melted.

A FURIOUS restaurant owner who lost £2,000 of trade after a power cut, has slammed energy company EDF for refusing to give him compensation.

Freddie Yousef, owner of the Acropolis Greek restaurant in Upper Orwell Street, Ipswich, claims he lost thousands of pounds when a mains power cable melted.

Power went off at around 11.30am on Saturday morning but engineers failed to arrive until 3.30pm.

It was another six and a half hours before power was fully restored at 10pm.

Mr Yousef said: "Their electricians did not arrive until 3.30pm and temporarily by-passed the cable. This gave us enough power for lights and heating but we couldn't cook anything and I had huge wires running all the way across the restaurant.

"People were walking past and seeing this monster cable and it was putting them off. Even if they had come in I could only have offered them a cup of tea."

Another set of engineers showed up at 8.30pm but power was not fully restored for another hour and a half.

Mr Yousef said: "I lost all the food that I was preparing for the day because all the fridges were off, I had to pay the staff that came in, and I had to cancel bookings for 22 people.

"When I phoned EDF to ask for compensation they said it was nothing to do with them.

"I'm very distressed by the whole thing. Their response was far too slow. It is their fault I could not open that evening. What do we pay our rates for?"

A spokeswoman for EDF Energy said: "We were informed by the Acropolis in Upper Orwell Street, Ipswich, of a power interruption affecting the restaurant at 1.52pm on 3 January.

"We investigated the cause at 3.20pm and installed a temporary partial power supply to the restaurant until normal service could be restored. Repairs were completed and normal service restored at 10.30pm."

She confirmed that the restaurant would have to have been without power for more than 18 hours before compensation could be paid. Even then the guaranteed standard payment would only have been £100.

The spokeswoman added: "We always advise those for whom a power supply is essential to ensure they have adequate back-up provisions themselves, or insure themselves against such losses."