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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Lauren Beavis & Graeme Murray

Police hunt 'dine and dash' couple who ate 12 burgers and left unpaid £174 bill

Police are hunting a "greedy couple" who ate 12 burgers in six minutes and left an unpaid £174 bill.

The pair walked into the Bite Me Burger restaurant and asked if they could do its burger challenge.

The restaurant in Marlborough, Wiltshire, offers customers the chance to try and eat a dozen burgers in six minutes for free if they do it in time.

But staff explained the challenge wasn't available to them as it had to be pre-booked.

Staff say the couple then ordered the twelve burgers for their party - ate them all then refused to pay saying they had completed the challenge anyway.

Police are seeking these diners after an unpaid bill (Wiltshire Police / SWNS)
The unpaid bill came to £174, which the police say is being treated as theft (Wiltshire Police / SWNS)

The greedy couple then left the restaurant and were adamant they would not pay for what they had eaten.

Police have now issued CCTV images of a male and female who they are hoping to speak to about the incident on February 5.

They say they are treating the incident as theft.

Simon Wetton, the owner of the restaurant, said that he is owed £174 by the diners and insisted their slot was not booked or supervised by staff at the eatery.

He said: "We do something called the burger challenge, which is that if you can eat 12 burgers in six minutes then the bill is on us.

"But to do the burger challenge it has to be pre-arranged as we have to be on-hand to time it properly.

"These people said they wanted to do the challenge but it was Saturday night, we were very busy and we didn't have the staff and time to time it, it's meant to be pre-arranged, so we said that unfortunately, they couldn't do the challenge.

"They still ordered 12 burgers and said they wanted to do the challenge. We explained that sorry, that was just not practical.

The couple claimed they had completed the eating challenge (Bite Me Burger / SWNS)

"But when it came to paying they said they had done the challenge in six minutes and would not pay for the burgers, the bill was on us.

"Staff again explained that it had to be timed by us.

"They argued with the waitress about this, she went to get the manager and by the time he arrived they had walked out.

"So I rang them and said look you owe me this money, please come back and pay it and they hung up on me, after saying they were going to slag off the restaurant on social media."

He added: "As it happens, I could see from the CCTV footage that it is crystal clear that they didn't eat the burgers in six minutes, even though it was not pre-arranged."

Mr Wetton reported the incident to the police, who said in a statement: "We are now investigating this as theft and would ask anyone with information to call us on 101, quoting reference 54220012944."

The restaurant operator did not want to waste vital police or court time but found the whole episode left a bad taste in his mouth.

He said: "I don't want to waste police time or that of the courts but, on top of all that restaurants have gone through with the lockdown, this is a matter of principle and people should not be allowed to get away with it."

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