The failure to punish brazen shoplifters could be helping to fuel a rise in ‘dine-and-dashing’ at pubs and restaurants because offenders feel more confident they won’t be caught, retail experts have warned.
There have been a spate of these incidents across the country in the last few months – with pub and restaurant industry bosses complaining they feel powerless to fight back.
A gastropub in East Sussex has become latest to fall victim to dine-and-dashers after a group of six people stuffed their faces with £240 worth of food and booze before walking off without paying the bill.
The Farm pub in Eastbourne shared images of several people it claimed had eaten and drank for free last Sunday as they downed double vodka Red Bulls, bottles of prosecco and pints of lager.
Professor Joshua Bamfield is director of the Centre for Retail Research and has carried out research on retail crime. He suggested were were some similarities between the motivations of people stealing from shops and those targeting hospitality venues.
‘The fact that people are prepared to do that and think they can get away with it shows you how they are thinking,’ he told MailOnline. ‘It’s true of shoplifting as well, with many offenders not even bothering to conceal what they are doing.
‘Shoplifters have learnt from other shoplifters just how easy it is and how unlikely it is that you’re going to end up in court.
‘Presumably the dine-and-dash people have done that too.’
Professor Bamfield said other factors that made it less likely that retail criminals would be caught included the quality of CCTV in hospitality venues and a lack of enforcement by the police and courts.
‘Not every restaurant has CCTV in the right areas that let you identify people, as it’s mainly there to deal with public order issues,’ he said.
‘The people who are seen on CCTV eating and running away may well have done it many times before and got away with it.
‘But mainly it’s to do with the declining moral standards in society. They want to have a nice meal so go to a good restaurant or pub, but don’t want to have to pay for it.’
Dine-and-dashing is not recorded as a specific offence by police, so figures showing the scale of the crime are hard to come by.
But Michael Kill, chief executive of the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA), believes it is an increasing problem.
‘In all honesty I think there is an escalation because people have been able to get away with it, with limited or no action taken by the police in many circumstances,’ he told Yahoo News.
‘The greater the chance of getting away with it, the more people will take that chance.
‘It is also clear that police have limited or no time to deal with petty crime and businesses feel that these crimes are not being taken seriously, resulting in people walking free without recourse.’
On April 23, the owners of Exeter’s Tamarind Bay restaurant were left £270 out of profit after a gang of 20 diners gorged themselves on curry, chips and naan bread before failing to pay the bill.
The party, which included adults and children, made off from the restaurant in a Land Rover and vans.
On March 23, six women visited the Wheelbarrow Castle pub in Worcester before enjoying a £140 meal and then allegedly leaving without paying.
CCTV images show one of the women even took the time to stand and pick her nose while waiting for her friends to walk out.
Landlady Sarah Hutchins said staff tried to chase the women who swore and laughed as they drove away.
Despite concerns about the lack of enforcement, some dine-and-dashers have been successfully caught.
In February, 52-year-old Craig Sharp was jailed for a year after running up more than £8,000 in unpaid bills for accommodation, high class food and drinks.
The crook admitted five charges of fraud by false representation at a string of venues in Essex and Suffolk, including a 15th Century manor house.
Chelmsford Magistrates heard how he ran up a bill of more than £5,000 staying between April and July last year at the Kingscliff Hotel in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex.
Sharp then stayed at the 15th-century Channels Hotel in Chelmsford, Essex, between November 15 and 19 where he ran up a bill of £214.50.
He went on to con the Angel gastro pub in Wangford, Suffolk, where he treated himself to a two night stay.
Sharp, of Harwich, tucked into lavish meals, washed down with numerous beers, and even bought rounds of drinks for locals which he added to his bill.
Disgraced solicitor Kerry Ann Stevens was struck off after she was convicted for a string of thefts at multiple restaurants over a two-year period from 2021 to 2023.
In March 2022, Ms Stevens attended South Essex Magistrates Court where she was found guilty of two counts of fraud and ordered to pay a total of £1,943 in costs and compensation.
Another time, Ms Stevens and her partner, Daniel Alani, were confronted by members of the public in a pub after allegedly refusing to pay for their Sunday lunch.
CCTV footage obtained by MailOnline showed the couple being prevented from fleeing the Castle Inn in Little Wakering by staff and fellow customers without settling their £62 bill.
Other suspected dine-and-dashers have faced revenge from the local people, with one couple having their windows smashed by a masked gang.
Police launched an investigation after a three-bedroom house in Port Talbot, south Wales had its front downstairs windows shattered last month.
Neighbours told MailOnline they heard what they thought was gunfire and called police to the house, which was said to be rented by a couple allegedly behind a ‘dine and dash’ racket.
At least seven restaurants have claimed that a couple allegedly behind a ‘dine and dash’ racket have been ordering expensive menu items – typically steaks – before fleeing and leaving the bill unpaid.
South Wales Police said they had arrested two suspects, aged 41 and 39, for fraud and theft offences.
The number of shoplifting incidents recently hit the highest figure on record, with a total of 430,104 offences recorded by police in the year to December 2023, up by more than a third (37%) from 315,040 in the previous 12 months.
The figure is the highest since current records began in the year to March 2003, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Retail bosses have accused ministers of allowing shoplifting to become effectively decriminalised, with many police forces failing to attend the majority of reports and failing to gather any evidence when they do.
Under 40 per cent of shoplifting reports were attended by the Met between April 2022 and April 2023, recent figures revealed.
The lack of official action means some retailers are turning to private police forces, and this week a prolific burglar who broke into a M&S store to steal £500 of sirloin and T-bone steak as well as 20 bottles of prosecco became the first person to be jailed in a private prosecution.
David Hanson, 44, who had 105 previous convictions including 33 burglaries, was caught in the act and arrested by two detectives from a private policing company.
The store manager from M&S in Streatham Hill had called police immediately after catching Hanson stealing on CCTV but despite the footage, the Met Police decided not to investigate.
Instead, the case was taken on my TM Eye – a private investigator company which was founded by former Scotland Yard chief detective David McKelvey.
The firm, which uses plain clothed officers and those in uniform, has already helped prosecute 280 shoplifters. However, the south London case marks the first time a prosecution has been made against a burglar.
It led to Hanson being jailed for a year for a total of five offences. These included four burglaries and one assault on an M&S employee.
Compounding shopkeepers’ woes, it emerged today that TikTok pranksters have been putting fake posters in stores encouraging people to shoplift.
A sign in a London Co-Op store read: ‘Shoplifting is encouraged in this branch.’
The signs were made by Pattern Up, a self-described ‘art group’ who previously put up fake posters declaring that Camden Council, in North London, had legalised cocaine and heroin.
All the posters have since been removed.
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Rory Tingle
