Restaurant owner shames ‘dine and dashers’ who walked out on £390 bill

A restaurant owner has hit out at ‘awful people’ who refused to pay their full £390 bill.

The group of four adults and six children visited La Banca, a traditional Italian restaurant in Selsey, West Sussex, on Sunday night.

They dined on steaks and carbonara, cleaning their plates, but when it was time to pay the bill the group refused to cough up, claiming the food was ‘awful’.

The group left £60 towards the alcohol they drank before leaving.

Neil Kimber, the restaurant’s owner, initially didn’t plan to report the incident to the police, citing a lack of action on similar incidents.

But after his post about the group went viral on social media, he’s released the CCTV footage of the group and reported the incident to the police as part of a ‘crackdown on this growing trend across the country’.

The group had initially booked a table for eight, but showed up with 10 people (Picture: Eddie Mitchell)

The group claimed the food was ‘awful’ despite clearing their plates (Picture: Eddie Mitchell)

They left after only paying £60 of their £390 bill (Picture: Eddie Mitchell)

La Banca owner Neil Kimber and head chef Jack Longland (Picture: Eddie Mitchell)

There have been several high-profile dine and dash cases across the country in recent months, including a couple who were jailed for dine and dashing more than £1,000 worth of food from five restaurants.

While police marched a group of six men who refused to pay their £300 bill back to the restaurant to pay up.

Neil added: ‘As most of our followers will be aware we as a small friendly traditional Italian restaurant were hit by some awful people.

‘Following various posts and shares including sightings of the vehicle, we reported this event to the police with no response as yet.

‘We have not recouped this money and we have released pictures of the people involved and the vehicle as part of a crackdown on this growing trend across the country.

‘These people do not understand the affect that it has on a small businesses and their staff, which we do not tolerate and will not be bullied.

‘Remember, shop local and support smaller businesses as you are needed now before it is too late.’

Speaking to MailOnline, Neil said the group ‘knew what they were doing’ and that dine and dashing is getting ‘more and more common’ in his small town.

Addressing the dine and dashers directly, he said it’s ‘people like you who will bring a small business like us down’, saying incidents of this scale could ‘cripple’ other restaurants.

He added: ‘We don’t want to charge our customers up front, but it’s getting worse.

‘The dine and dash craze will ruin businesses. Selsey is only a sleepy town and we’re being taken advantage of. It’s just getting constant.’

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