Exclusive: LOCAL RESTAURANT INSTALLS CCTV TO STOP ‘DINE AND DASH’
The owners of La Familia restaurant in Hampton Hill have been forced to install expensive CCTV cameras following a recent ‘dine and dash’ incident, Teddington Town has learned.
This follows the appearance at Wimbledon magistrates court of a Teddington man, Simon Hogg, who accompanied by a woman, ran up a bill of £174,40 for fillet steaks, cocktails, beer, shots, starters and desserts and then left without paying.
Frustrated owner Manuel de Castro told Teddington Town exclusively how the scam unfolded.
“This is unfortunately something that is occurring more and more in the hospitality industry and as a business owner in this industry, there isn’t much we can do to combat it which out judging people before the act takes place.
“When they walked in, they were instantly chatting and over-friendly, almost like we were meant to recognise them, which we didn’t, but we exchanged conversations and they ordered, all when being overly loud and talkative to the staff.
“The lady who was with Simon left towards the end of the meal, stating she needed to collect her child from school, leaving Simon with the bill and finishing his drink.
“When it came to pay, the card declined. We tried it twice, with the same result. He then claims that he gave the wrong card to his partner, who had left, who couldn’t return as she was approaching the school.
“He did attempt to call her and had what we can assume was a fake conversation. The reason for us believing this was that he had to use our phone due to his not having credit and when we tried to redial the number it didn’t work.
“He then claimed that his grandmother lives close by on Chelsea Close, 3 minutes from our premises. He said that his grandmother would lend him the money.
“He takes a route to Chelsea Close, accompanied by myself, he has to jump a fence, which I was unable to jump. At this point, he is standing outside one of the flat calling for someone. As I make my round, through the main road, he has disappeared.
I knocked on a house that had a ring door bell asking to see if they had captured him.as he walked past. They did in fact recognise him, and was indeed the grandson of one of thier neighbours.
“Unfortunately, he never returned to pay but did in fact call us back as we had pointed him out to neighbours and what I can only assume his grandmother as well. He stated that we had given him a bad name and that he could “buy my restaurant, twice over” if he wanted.
“Personally, there isn’t anything we can do to prevent this happening again, as police resources are limited and with out judging someone prematurely, our hands our tied.
“We have recently installed CCTV to aid us in any future events. But as it stands, we are of pocket of £174.40 and now a further £400 for a CCTV system which was a direct result of this happening.
“The police were as attentive as we could ask in this circumstance and did what could be done. He has been caught and found guilty but the payments made to us to cover this amount is so minimum that it will take years to cover the £174.40 he owes us.”