Upper Crust has apologised to patrons affected by a software glitch which caused nine months of food bills to be taken out of their bank accounts at once.

Restaurant owner Marico Thomas said the problems began last September and only affected Upper Crust in Warwick.

The glitch caused debit card sales not to be charged. A person's card would have been swiped, but the information was not received by the bank, he said.

Customers who examined card statements would have noted they were not charged for any purchases during the time frame.

Mr. Thomas said a "vigilant" customer informed him last week, that they had not had any charges deducted from their account since September.

Some regular customers like Shane Burrows, 22, have now been slapped with more than $500 in bills.

Mr. Burrows, a student at Bermuda College, said the large bill has depleted money he was expecting to use for his education.

"I really feel that I should have been notified. In fact they shouldn't have been taking card orders, they should have said money orders only," the student said.

Now that he has "zero dollars" in his bank account, Mr. Burrows says he will have to work extra hours to make his upcoming school payments.

So far five people have called the restaurant chain to say this has happened to them, said Mr. Thomas.

Anyone that used their debit card at the Warwick store in the past nine months could face the same issue.

Mr. Thomas said he understood customers' frustrations but the store has its own financial commitments.

He apologised and said: "We appreciate the tolerance of our customers and regret the confusion and inconvenience caused in resolving the matter. If we can try to separate the payments out we would love to do this so there is no one-time, large payment on anyone's card.

"This issue is still being worked on and as a result, charges are now being processed by the banks. So far transactions from December 22 to the current date have been processed.

"As it happened over a nine-month period, we are making efforts to spread the charges out, however we have not had control over how the credit card processing company functions and when. While personal communication was preferable, the number of customers affected by this issue did not allow for efficient nor effective means to contact each person individually."

The businessman continued: "The issue has been resolved so their transactions will now be processed right after the purchase as is normal practice. It is important to note that there was never any security issue regarding anyone's card. If anything, security was tightened and that is why this error may have happened in the first place."