SHOCKING footage shows the moment a woman appears to “pull out a hair and put it on a plate of food” in a row over a £77 bill.
CCTV provided by the Oriental Garden in Northampton shows the woman seemingly carry out the act while opposite another diner.
SWNSA woman at the Oriental Garden in Northampton is accused of putting a hair on a plate of food[/caption]
SWNSCCTV footage shared by the owner appears to show her pluck a hair from her head[/caption]
Facebook/OrientalGardenNorthamptonThe couple the restaurant claimed had refused to pay shown arriving at the Oriental Garden[/caption]
The footage appears to show her quietly pluck a hair from her head before placing it in the food in front of her.
After telling staff she had “found a hair” in her meal, the woman allegedly “pushed past” them before leaving with her male companion without settling the bill.
The restaurant’s owner, who asked not to be named, told MailOnline: “A member of staff came over and said they’d found a hair in their food and wanted to speak to me.
“The hair was sitting perfectly on the top, so I said maybe it had fallen from her head.
“It got to the point where she was bickering and shouting, then she pushed past me.”
The restaurateur said he “felt a lot better” after realising the whole incident had been caught on CCTV.
He said: “I warned them there were cameras everywhere. Maybe they thought there was only one.”
The owner claimed he was later hit by two unrelated dine and dash incidents.
There has now been a change of policy at the eaterie, with customers being asked to pay upfront.
He said: “I probably lost a total of £200 – which is a lot of money for many people.
“It’s a shame because everyone is struggling in the industry at the moment. We usually get one or two of these incidents each year.”
A worker at the nearby Mayflower Restaurant said he had also seen customers placing hair in their food before not paying.
The unnamed worker told MailOnline that it has happened “a couple of times in here”.
He added: “It’s people who aren’t local, they all say they’ve come from the hotel.”
Dine and dash occurs when customers rack up significant food and drink bills and leave without paying a penny.
In February, Craig Sharp, 52, from Harwich, Essex, was jailed for 12 months after leaving £8,000 of unpaid restaurant and accommodation bills between April and November 2023.
And one “dine and dash” couple even admitted to skipping out on restaurant bills worth more than £1,000.
Bernard McDonagh, 41, and his wife Ann McDonagh, 39, were caught on camera striking at a string of eateries across Wales.
It comes as a dine and dash crimewave is appearing to sweep the UK.
Although no figures are available solely for the scam that is blighting small businesses across Britain, industry insiders believe it is on the rise with recent spikes in South Wales and Cornwall.
Various ruses are employed. Some eat their meal then pretend it was substandard before refusing to pay.
Others, after sizing up a premises’ exit routes, simply make a run for it after a slap-up feed.