Moment 15 people left without paying their £200 fish and chips bill | UK News

A group of 15 diners were caught on CCTV walking out of a fish and chip restaurant without paying their £200 bill.

The ‘dine and dash’ culprits are seen asking for the bill at Captains restaurant on Brighton beach, looking at it, then walking out.

When co-owners Billy and Pam Sandhus realised what had happened they called police and shared the footage.

Someone from the group has since got in touch with the restaurant and settled the bill.

No further action will be taken against them, the owners told MailOnline.

Speaking about the incident, which happened on August 8, Pam said: ‘We work hard and we’re one of the top restaurants in Brighton, so for someone to come in and do that, it’s upsetting.’

‘We have a system here that says if a tab is still open and that’s when we realised that it hadn’t been paid,’ she added.

In the footage, the bill can be seen in front of two of the diners on a table before the group stand up, gather their bags and brazenly leave.

Sussex Police confirmed it was looking into the incident before the bill was paid.

The owners said customers are usually trustworthy and that this particular case was a ‘one off’.

However, police and crime commissioner Donna Jones told MailOnline there there had been a recent rise in the number of ‘outrageous’ dine-and-dash offences.

She said: ‘It’s a crime that is growing. This could be down to the cost-of-living crisis. But there is no excuse for people to go to a restaurant, have a three-course meal and bottle of wine and then not pay for it. It’s outrageous.’

Ms Jones added that it was a particularly ‘appalling’ thing to do right now, when people are struggling to pay bills and keep businesses afloat.

The most recent ‘dine and dash’ Home Office figures are from 2018, when the Metropolitan Police recorded 12,610 incidents in London.

Last year two families racked up a £330 bill of tomahawk steaks, cocktails and vodka at a pub, left the place ‘like a bomb site’, then walked out without paying.

The incident happened at the White Horse Inn on Barnby Moor in East Retford, Nottinghamshire and, according to the owner, the diners were also ‘intimidating’ to staff.

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