A party of seven people who tucked into a huge Sunday lunch including oysters and lobster thermidors costing a whopping £489 before allegedly ‘doing a runner’ fled the restaurant in an untaxed £40,000 Audi, MailOnline can reveal.
Furious bosses at Stubbs Restaurant in Ashford, Kent, today released CCTV footage of diners who they claim drove away ‘as quickly as possible’ after their meal.
The footage reportedly shows the group leaving in an Audi worth around £40,000, which DVLA records show is untaxed.
Stubbs Restaurant released the CCTV photos after publicly shaming the group on Facebook and sharing the receipt for their staggering bill of almost £500.
The eatery has asked “please come back and pay your bill,” adding that it is a private restaurant that “will not survive if you do this to us.”
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Furious bosses at Stubbs Restaurant in Ashford, Kent today released CCTV footage of diners who they claim drove away ‘as quickly as possible’ after the meal
The footage reportedly shows the group leaving in an Audi worth around £40,000
DVLA data showed that the Audi in which the group appeared to flee is untaxed
The restaurant shared the group’s receipt on Facebook, which showed a total of £489.90 was owed
A restaurant shot a group of diners who allegedly ‘eaten’ a hearty meal of oysters and lobster before running away without paying the bill
Staff at Stubbs Restaurant in Ashford, Kent, were furious after welcoming a group of seven people who, after racking up a bill of £489, drove away ‘as fast as they could’.
A message from the restaurant said the group left without paying the bill totaling £489.90.
According to images of the customers’ receipts, the group enjoyed three cocktails of lobster, crab and prawns, which cost £59.95.
They then reportedly ordered two portions of crispy brie for £17.90, as well as a more reasonably priced calamari for £9.95 and chicken liver parfait for £8.95. There were also two orders of a dozen oysters costing £16 each.
For mains, the large party ordered four lobster thermidors costing a total of £216, as well as a sirloin steak with green pepper sauce for £31.50 and a skate platter for £23.95.
The group also bought drinks including three pints of Thatchers for £5.50 each, as well as a couple of 250ml glasses of Malbec for £10.90 each and several glasses of Shiraz and Pinot Grigio.
Alongside images of the alleged customers, they wrote: ‘Please come back and pay your bill! We are a private restaurant and will not survive if you do this to us. You ate your entire meal and we helped you tremendously… and yet you drove away as fast as you could without paying.”
According to images of the customer’s receipt, the group enjoyed three lobster, crab and prawn cocktails costing £59.95.
They also ordered two portions of crispy brie for £17.90, as well as a more reasonably priced calamari for £9.95 and chicken liver parfait for £8.95.
A post from the restaurant on Facebook said the group left without paying the bill totaling £489.90
In the comments section of the post, other customers shared their support for the restaurant.
One wrote: ‘I’m sorry they did this. We were just around the corner eating from them. Wondered why the waitress was looking at us, probably worried we would leave too.’
‘Horrible. Become a hotel and take a CCard Swipe when customers arrive. Anyone with good intentions will never complain about that! Good luck getting it back,” said another.
A third commented: ‘How many times are you going to let this happen? Surely alarm bells should be ringing when these people come in and start ordering the most expensive items on the menu.
“I sympathize with you, but you’ve been through this multiple times, so logic says you need to tighten up your systems.”
Earlier this year, the restaurant faced a similar incident.
On May 4, they shared a photo of two young men on their Facebook, writing: “Please come back and pay your bill.”
The MailOnline has contacted the restaurant and Kent Police for comment.
It comes after a pub was hit twice within a few months earlier this year, with patrons walking out without paying.
But a family who were caught on CCTV going for a run after enjoying a £215 Father’s Day lunch at a gastropub in Cornwall eventually settled their bill.
The group of six are said to have picked up the bill at The Fisherman’s Arms, Newlyn, in Penzance, Cornwall, in June and walked away without paying after saying they were going for a cigarette.
The pub later said that those involved in the incident had ‘paid up’, meaning the ‘case is now closed’. It added that they even overpaid “as a gesture of goodwill.”
The pub posted a message on Twitter to alert people of the dramatic breakthrough.
It read: ‘We would like to inform you that the individuals involved in the Father’s Day incident have now contacted the pub and paid the bill in full, in fact they have overpaid as a gesture of goodwill. The case is now closed!!’
One of the people caught on CCTV is believed to be a man called Edward O’Reilly. 23, who is known as Ned, MailOnline previously revealed.
He is the director of a company called Kings Landscaping and he lives in a static caravan on a traveler site next to the A38 in Plympton, Devon.
A number of people came forward to identify Mr O’Reilly in the footage, although the businessman is understood to deny he was at the pub on Sunday and insist on CCTV footage that it is not him.
The group of six – two men, two women and two children – are said to have arrived at the pub around 5pm and stayed there for three hours.
They drank four Baileys White Russians and two Cosmopolitan cocktails, as well as a cider, three pints of coca-cola and three starters, six main courses and two desserts to rack up the huge bill.