Bank staff forced to shut up shop by an electrical fault cashed in on the sunshine - by serving customers from a pavement stall.

Cashiers at Barclays Bank Ltd in Chapel Road, Worthing, took it in turns to serve from a table outside their branch yesterday.

Instead of speaking to customers through shatter-proof glass, staff stood in front of the tiny table to deal with the queues.

Two members of staff at a time manned the stall, processing cheques in the open air and weighing down documents with stationery to stop them blowing away.

The electrical fault, which happened over the weekend, was discovered when staff arrived for work. The tills and safe were automatically sealed when the power failed.

Enterprising cashiers decided a pavement service was better than nothing.

One cashier, who didn't want to be named, said: "I was just glad it wasn't raining. It would have been a nightmare standing outside then but actually it was quite pleasant. We couldn't do much really apart from take people's cheques and advise them where our other branches were."

Lucy Stone, a regular customer from Lancing, was banking a cheque during her lunch hour.

She said: "I think it was a nice change. It was a lovely day and was nice to get a tan rather than missing the sunshine.

"I was a bit surprised to see the stall outside but at least the bank didn't shut completely. The staff seemed to be enjoying themselves."

A spokeswoman for Barclays said the impromptu service was an example of the company's enthusiasm to assist customers wherever possible.

She added: "The branch had to shut because of health and safety precautions after an electrical problem at the weekend.

"We would like to apologise to anybody affected by the closure. We have not been allowing the cashiers to deal with cash."

It was business as usual again today.