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Wales Online
Entertainment
Charlotte Hadfield & Ashley Summerfield

Restaurant staff 'deflated' after party of 14 leaves without paying

A restaurant team is feeling "deflated" after a party of 14 customers left without paying their £400 bill.

Staff at Rokka, in Wirral, said the diners ate their food and left without paying the £404 bill on Saturday night, reports Lancs Live.

Christina, 35, who works front of house in the restaurant, said the bill is more money than she earns in a week and that the situation has left the whole team feeling "deflated".

The restaurant has given the group a chance to come back and pay or they will give the CCTV footage to the police.

In an Instagram post, the restaurant said: "Unfortunately tonight we have had a party of 14 leave an unpaid bill of over £400.

"They received the same great service and good quality good as all our paying customers this evening.

"We are giving this table the benefit of the doubt, to pay within 48 hours before we report this incident to the police and release their images on our social media.

"We are an independently run business with a small team and we work hard to get where we are and we deserve better than this."

Christina said the booking was made for 10 people, but when 14 turned up the restaurant moved tables and chairs to accompany this.

She said: "We are a very small independent business. We only have 14 tables so what they did last night - we turned people away for them because we didn't have room for them because they took extra tables and extra chairs - so we've lost paying customers as well as losing £400."

A group of four men came to the counter to pay rather than waiting at the table for the bill to be brought to them, while they did this the rest of the party left the restaurant and got into cars outside.

Christina said: "When they've asked for the bill they've seen the price of it, they've proceeded to barter the price of the bill down saying they're not paying that.

"Everything off their plates was gone. There was no food left over, they sent nothing back.

"It's only upon paying the bill that the issue happens."

Christina said the group complained and when the restaurant refused to take money off the bill they became aggressive and started shouting at the staff, including two 15-year-old waitresses who work there on weekends.

She said: "Three of them left and one who was left, he just wanted to pay for his own family's food but then I think he thought he was being left behind because the rest of the party was trying to get out of the door.

"He said I have £150 - the bill was over £400. I said 'pay that then and we'll discuss how you can pay for the rest of the bill.'

"He said he needed a cash machine, I followed him outside because he was trying to get away as well.

"I said 'you don't need a cash machine we take card payments' and as I turned around to direct him back into the restaurant he jumps in a car and he makes his exit."

Christina said the man later phoned the restaurant to apologise and said he would return at 11:30am the next morning with all the money for the bill but he did not turn up.

She added: "We feel really deflated, we work extremely hard.

"It's called hospitality for a reason we want you to come in, we want you to have a nice time. If there's a problem we want to fix it but when we have tables like that it affects the rest of the restaurant and the rest of our customers who are trying to have a nice time. "

"There is no judgement here. We are giving them the benefit of the doubt to collect that money and come and pay us because we deserve to be paid for the meals and the food. We don't care about tips we just want what it owed to us.

"No one is going to shout at them, no one if going to get them in trouble.

"Once the 48 hours is up we'll report the incident to police and we will release their images because we don't want any other businesses to have to go through what we did last night."

For more stories from where you live, visit InYourArea.

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