A man in Vigo, Spain, has been fined €150 (£125) after fleeing a restaurant without paying a €19 (£16) bill he considered too expensive, with a court upholding his fraud conviction.
The incident occurred on August 22, 2025, on Teófilo Llorente Street in the Vello Vigués (Old Vigo) district of Galicia. After deciding the bill was too high, the unnamed man and three friends left without paying.
Court Proceedings and Appeal
In March, Vigo Magistrates' Court No. 5 imposed a penalty of €5 (£4.20) per day for one month. Court records show that even by the time the case went to trial, the defendant had yet to contribute a single penny towards the cost of the drinks.
The man appealed, arguing the deception involved was too minor to amount to fraud and insisting the incident was not driven by any intent to profit. However, the Provincial Court of Pontevedra's Fifth Section rejected that claim, finding he had ordered and consumed the drinks before deliberately leaving without paying.
Court's Ruling
It was determined that he had failed to demonstrate the amount was unreasonable and had made no attempt to offer payment to the establishment. The judge noted that the man had acted "with a clear intent to make a financial gain". The court upheld his fraud conviction, hitting him with a €150 (£125) fine and ordering him to cover the legal costs.
Broader Context of Dine-and-Dash
Dine-and-dash incidents have reportedly been on the rise in recent years. In January, a poll of 1,500 adults in Britain by Glass Atlas for card payment provider take payments found that one in 12 admitted to the criminal practice.
Such cases can have a serious knock-on effect on hospitality staff. Speaking to the BBC in 2025, Amanda Brighton, director of Joe's Bar and Grill in Oxford, described an incident in which customers built up a £230 bill, claimed there was a piece of glass in their food, and then tried to leave without settling it.
Similar Cases in Spain
In a similar case, a British tourist allegedly ran up a €19,000 (£17,000) bill over six weeks at a hotel in Santa Ponça, Calvià, before vanishing without paying.
In a different incident, four customers are said to have spent around £100 each before making off without paying. Aruser@s presenter Alba Sánchez said it happened in 2021 at a restaurant in Cerceda, A Coruña, where four diners ordered octopus, ribeye steaks, Albariño wine, and shots without a thought for the price. The total reached €447 (approximately £385). The proprietor pursued legal action, and five years later, all four were found guilty and handed an eight-month prison term.
Restaurant-owner Maria told Alba: "The customers ordered four soft drinks and then proceeded to add various items to the order: bread, a platter of Iberian cured meats, five servings of octopus, two ribeye steaks, two bottles of Albariño wine, two portions of potatoes, and four shots. They didn't deny anything. They didn't even look at the prices. In fact, I went to the kitchen and told my husband, 'We've just made our day with this table.'"
