CCTV footage has captured the moment two adults and two children left a restaurant without paying a £250 bill. Johnny Delaney, 44, was filmed exiting Stubbs, a steak and seafood restaurant in Ashford, Kent, last November.
The footage shows Delaney walking quickly across the car park with one of the children before driving off in a VW Passat. Kent Police launched a full investigation following the theft and tracked down Delaney after an anonymous tip-off.
Claim of cold food and hair
Delaney claimed the group walked out because the food was cold and they found a hair. However, the restaurant stated that there were no complaints from the guests and all food was finished.
Delaney was later charged and forced to pay nearly eight times the original bill. Earlier this year he pleaded not guilty at Canterbury Crown Court but changed his plea to guilty in August.
Court sentence and curfew
He faced a 12-month community order sentence alongside a combined bill of £1,996.82. Delaney was also ordered to adhere to a strict daily curfew from 6pm to 3am until October.
Stubbs’ senior general manager, Sally Newman, said: “As we approach the end of our first five years of opening Stubbs, this successful conviction marks a significant milestone for our team. This kind of theft places an immense emotional and operational strain on me and my hardworking colleagues. We hope this sends a clear message that such behaviour will not be tolerated in our town.”
Similar incidents reported
The restaurant added that during its first year it saw at least two incidents a week of people purposefully not paying. The incident follows a similar dine-and-dash situation in July, which saw a family of nine abandon their bill at a Turkish restaurant in Hertfordshire.
Five adults and four children racked up a bill of £160 between them before they individually fled, leaving the last person at the table to slip away unnoticed.
