Dine and dash ‘travellers’ scoffed fry-ups and glugged Coke before making a run for it

Staff at Honey’s Bakery & Café said that the group ‘took advantage’ of the family-run eatery and added that a brazen act like this makes a ‘such a difference’ to a small business

A cheeky group of apparent travellers legged it from a café after scoffing almost £100 worth of food and drink. The ‘dine and dash’ incident last Tuesday afternoon at Honey’s Bakery & Café in Caergwrle, North Wales has left its owners distraught.

They were forced to chase the six people involved – including three women, two men and a young child – across a car park once they’d eaten six Full English breakfasts between them. On top of this, they’d also ordered seven Cokes, two chocolate fudge cakes, a cookie and a brownie. This all came to a not insignificant cost of £93.80.

Shocked customers at riverside café could only watch on as the group managed to get away. Annie Bailey, 21, who serving them, told the Mail: “We were just shocked that people would actually act like that. All the customers in the cafe were watching on horrified.”

She went to explain how something like this makes “such difference to a small business”. Annie decribed the horror of seeing the brazen act happen right in front of her eyes and slammed the perpetrators for taking “advantage and complete liberties” of the family-run business.

Annie, who has been at Honey’s Bakery for four years, noted that she thought the group looked like travellers when they came in the cafe but had no problem with that as “we serve everybody equally”.

“They came in, sat outside, right next to the car park, ordered a vast amount of food, and then literally ran out of the cafe, ran out of the car park, sprinted away. We ran after them,” she said.

She described the “split-second” moment had a “horrible ordeal” that has left staff in a state of “complete shock”.

Owner Coleen Tou, who took over the café in six years ago, described the group as being “very skilled” at the dine and dash.

“One lady that’s from the group has actually been to the café before, so they know that we don’t take payment up front,” she said.

However, she took some solace in the fact that nobody was hurt as a result of the incident.

Coleen also added her lack of surprise that this happened due to the proliferation of dine and dashers recently, but that she had not personally experienced it with her business until now.

The café wrote on Instagram at the time: “This afternoon at Honeys we experienced a dine-and-dash incident. A group of family with Irish accents came in, ordered a large amount of food, and left without paying.’

“If you are approached by a group matching this description, please take payment before serving, and report any suspicious behaviour to the authorities.”

A North Wales Police spokesperson said: “Shortly after 3pm on Tuesday, 12 August, we received a report that a group eating at a restaurant in Caergwrle, Flintshire, left without making a payment of approximately £100. The incident is reported to have taken place at around 2pm.

“Anyone with information in relation to the incident is asked to contact officers on 101, or via the website, using reference number C124476.”

Earlier this month, heartless diners enjoyed into lamb, chicken, chapati, naans, rice and poppadoms at an Saffron, Indian restauant in Northampton, before running away without paying.

While in July, the proprietor of the Greyhound Inn pub in Usk in South Wales claimed that a “selfish” family of 10 “pushed their way” out without settling their massive £320 tab.

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