Four diners who ran out on a €447 (£385) restaurant bill in Cerceda, A Coruña in 2021 have been convicted and sentenced to eight months in prison for fraud, five years after the incident.
The case was recounted on the Spanish TV show Aruser@s, where host Alba Sánchez explained that the four diners ran up a bill of around £100 each before leaving without paying.
Owner recalls the meal
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.”
She added: “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.'”
The escape and the conviction
After finishing their meal, two of the diners went outside to smoke while the other two stayed indoors. They then asked for the bill and, according to the court ruling, asked for three coffees to take out onto the terrace.
Maria suspected nothing, but when she stepped out with the coffees, “there was no one left,” she explained to Informativos Telecinco. She added: ”You feel like you've been played for a fool. It’s not so much about the money, though that matters, too, because for a small business like ours, it throws the whole month’s finances into disarray, but rather the sense of powerlessness that comes from feeling mocked.”
The owner decided to report the incident, and the customers were identified thanks to the establishment's security cameras. All four individuals have now been convicted, and the penalty may well have them thinking they’d have been better off just paying the bill.
The owner is pleased with the outcome and says that, even though years have passed, the ruling helps make amends for that earlier feeling of helplessness. “I hope this serves as a lesson to them, and to anyone else considering doing the same thing,” she said.
