A man from Blackpool claims to have been "shocked" after an Uber Eats delivery driver snuck off with his £40 Chinese takeaway - claiming he'd left the food by the front door. Now he's warning others to remain vigilant against similar scams.
Jon Cawdron, who runs The Sands Hotel on Blackpool promenade, believes he wouldn't have had a refund if he hadn’t managed to capture the incident on CCTV.
The footage, taken on Sunday evening at around 6:20pm, shows the driver taking a snap of the delivery at the door of the guest house, as a means of confirming that had been delivered.
However, mere seconds later, the driver - identified as a man named “Gheorghe” - calmly picks up the take-out food and brings it back with him to his car.
Going forward, Jon, 42, wants others to be wary of this sort of trickery, knowing that he was only able to get his cash back after providing evidence.
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After his food never materialised, Jon rang up Lucky House Chinese Restaurant, in Blackpool, to ask what was going on.
The restaurant owners advised him to contact Uber Eats directly to ask for a refund. However, when he did, he was told that the driver had taken a pic of the food on the doorstep, proving he'd delivered it.
Knowing something was wrong, Jon checked through his CCTV, wondering whether a guest at the hotel could have made off with the food. He was shocked after learning that it was in fact the delivery driver.
Jon said: “When I went through the footage, I thought it might have been a guest stealing it at the hotel. But then I saw that it was the driver that had taken my food.
“I made an official complaint to Uber Eats about the driver and uploaded the video, and since then, I got lots of messages saying it was happening a lot in Blackpool."
It was only when John produced CCTV evidence of the takeaway being stolen that Uber Eats reimburse him and his family for the sum of £39.44, an amount they would have otherwise lost.
John continued: "Obviously, if I hadn’t got the CCTV footage, then I would be stuck, and I wouldn’t have got my money back or anything.
“But what about the other houses that don’t have cameras? I’m more concerned about who else this has been happening to.”
Going forward, Jon now wants to take things further, worried that this might well happen again to someone else.
He added: “Personally, I want the driver held responsible. He shouldn’t be working in the industry.”
Uber Eats has since been approached for comment.
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