Restaurant charging upfront due to 'dine and dash'

A restaurant owner in East Yorkshire is asking customers to pay for meals upfront after a spate of "dine and dash" incidents.

The phrase refers to customers who leave without paying for their food and drink.

Racha Nassif, from Cloud 9 in Hornsea, said they decided to charge people upfront after five or six incidents.

"It's not very nice. I wouldn't do that myself and because I'm in the business I know how hard it is with everything going up," she said.

In one incident, Ms Nassif said four young people "just walked off", but left a phone behind.

"We contacted them, but they just refused to pay," she said.

In another, a group left without paying a bill of £130.

"I was surprised as they were quite old, and it was possible they genuinely forgot," Ms Nassif said.

After posting a warning on Facebook to make other businesses aware, she said the group eventually got in touch and paid the bill, claiming they had forgotten.

"If there is something with the food you come and tell me so we can sort it, but just to leave - we've got staff to pay - we've got bills," she added.

Ms Nassif said they had introduced the measures as part of a revamp of the restaurant, which was previously called Med-Mex.

She said they were worried initially about how customers would react, but said they had been supportive.

"Since then there haven't been any issues," she added.

According to UK Hospitality - the trade body for hospitality businesses in the UK - a third of operators had recently experienced an incident of dine and dash.

Of those affected, 29% said the frequency of incidents had increased compared with the previous year.

Tony Sophoclides, UK Hospitality strategic affairs director, said walking out of restaurants without paying was unacceptable and showed “a complete lack of respect”.

He said there had been a rise in the number of incidents, probably linked to the cost of living crisis.

However, he said: "That doesn't make it any more acceptable."

Mr Sophoclides said it was likely to be a "spur of the moment thing" for smaller groups and couples, but added that larger groups would probably plan it in advance.

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