Port Talbot dine-and-dash couple jailed after racking up over £1k payments in 4 eating places | EUROtoday

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A pair who admitted a collection of “dine and dash” offences in a string of eating places in south Wales have been jailed after they racked up payments totalling greater than £1,100.

Bernard, 41, and Ann McDonagh, 39, who use greater than 40 aliases and 18 dates of delivery between them, had visited 5 venues with their household and ordered meals and drinks with “no intention of paying for it”.

The pair carried out their first offence on the River House restaurant in Swansea on 9 August final yr, once they spent £267 on food and drinks earlier than leaving with out paying.

They additionally ordered £99.40 value of meals from the Golden Fortune takeaway in Port Talbot in January, and in addition racked up £276.60 on the La Casona restaurant in Skewen on 23 February.

On March 27, the couple dishonestly obtained £196 of food and drinks from Isabella’s in Porthcawl. They dedicated the identical offence once more on April 19, taking £329.10 of food and drinks from Bella Ciao in Swansea.

Swansea Magistrates’ Court heard the 5 offences, which each defendants admitted, totalled £1,168.10.

Ann McDonagh additionally pleaded responsible to 4 counts of shoplifting, totalling £1,017.60, regarding thefts at Tesco in Swansea in addition to Tommy Hilfiger and Sainsbury’s at Bridgend Designer Outlet.

The thefts befell between September 6 final yr and February 25 this yr. She stole six polo shirts and one pair of chinos value £442 from the Tommy Hilfiger retailer by hiding them in her gilet jacket.

She returned days later and was seen breaking safety tags off gadgets earlier than attempting to hide them, making off in a blue Ford Transit van – a motability automobile – with £49 of products.

Judge Paul Thomas sentenced Ann McDonagh to 12 months in jail and Bernard McDonagh to eight months, telling them their actions might have been motivated by “pure and utter greed”.

He advised them: “From the autumn of last year to spring of this year, you two set out on a deliberate course of sustained dishonesty.

“You would go to restaurants with your own family. You would have food and drink served to you to the value of hundreds of pounds and then you would cynically and brazenly leave without paying.

“You would order the most expensive items on the menu such as steaks in the full knowledge that you had no intention whatsoever of paying for them.”

The decide stated that utilizing youngsters to attend within the eating places, who would then run off, whereas pretending to go to a cashpoint was “ruthlessly exploitative”.

South Wales Police beforehand confirmed the pair had been charged with the offences in April “following reports of several incidents of non-payment of restaurant bills and shoplifting”.

The case emerged after the newly opened Bella Ciao in Swansea reported a household had left with out paying a invoice value £329.

Writing on Facebook, the restaurant described how a girl tried to pay with a financial savings account card which was declined twice.

She then advised employees her son would wait inside whereas she went to fetch a distinct card.

The publish stated: “…of course she does not return and then the son receives a phone call and says he has to go and does a runner.”

It described how the household had given a “fake” quantity to order a desk on the restaurant, that means the incident was reported to the police.

“To do this to anyone is disgusting but to do this to a newly open restaurant is even worse,” the enterprise wrote.

The River House additionally posted on Facebook in regards to the couple, stating that that they had racked up a £270 invoice earlier than leaving with out paying.

Writing final August, the restaurant stated: “They run up a very hefty bill (for 5) and ‘promised’ to get cash from the local cash point after their card got declined.

“We like to put trust in some people, but this was obviously carefully planned as they all just disappeared.”

Representing Bernard McDonagh, Giles Hayes stated his shopper had introduced the cash with him to court docket with the intention to pay it again.

He described father-of-six McDonagh as “deeply embarrassed and ashamed” by his actions.

Andrew Evans, representing Ann McDonagh, stated she had suffered household bereavements and will have carried out the frauds “to try to make herself feel better”.