Group fled Chinese restaurant ‘without paying £250 bill’
A PARTY of diners enjoying a Chinese meal ‘got up and left the restaurant without paying their £250 bill’.
The owner of Dragon Palace in Bournemouth has told the group of eight that “they can rot” for leaving her business out of pocket.
Cathy Lieng said the incident has made her feel “sad” and she is worried her trust for people has faded.
CCTV footage shows the moment the diners get up and make for the door at the venue in Barrack Road, Christchurch.
Cathy said: “One of the waiters noticed some of them went for a smoking break by the front door and we thought that was OK but then after 30 seconds we didn’t see anyone at the table.
“They ordered a lot of food and then I looked at the bill. They already had a £60 bill for the drinks and my daughter said they hadn’t paid for that as well.
“I feel really bad about this because running a business is really hard because all the costs are so much higher now.
“We have to work a lot more each day now and people don’t have much money to go out to eat.
“The money will be coming out of the business’s pocket – not any of the wages of the staff or myself – so this will affect the business’s finances.”
The group included men and women, with the women dressed in pink and white and the men wearing shorts and T-shirts.
Cathy feels “very upset” that she couldn’t stop them and added: “It makes me sad that people can eat and run”.
“When you order on a takeaway app you pay for the meal before, but when it’s people to people there has to be trust and they have broken that,” the owner of the family-run business of more than 25 said.
“This has happened before, about a year ago, and we called the police but they said they can’t do anything.
“After Covid, this sort of thing started to happen, it didn’t happen before. I think people are misbehaving since Covid and I feel very bad for them. It seems people have no money.”
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Dorset Police have confirmed they are investigating the incident that happened on Sunday, July 2, however, no one has been arrested.