Diner charged £250,000 at restaurant in Hampstead
A woman got the the shock of her life when she was accidentally charged almost £270,000 for a meal in at a restaurant in North London.
Pretima Champaneri-Phillips brought her son for a meal at Cote Brasserie in Hampstead.
She ordered soup followed by coq au vin and her son had eggs benedict and a steak.
The bill should have come to £26.83. But the amount appeared on the bill as £268,399.32, reports ITV.
Pretima entered her details without noticing the error but luckily she spotted the mistake before leaving the restaurant.
According to the Evening Standard, the waitress was quick to rectify the error and the transaction was swiftly cancelled.
"I should think it was the most expensive meal I have ever had in my life. It was good, but not that good!
"It was just a two-course, early-bird dinner with my son. I hadn't even ordered any wine, just mineral water.
"I was just settling up the bill with my debit card and entered by PIN number as one does.
"I pressed the button then saw all these numbers come up and thought 'hold on a minute, something is wrong here.'
"It was a sting in the tail after a nice meal with my son. Immediately, I realised what happened and thankfully it didn't go through.
"It has made me really wary because Cote is our local restaurant and it's not far away from us. I don't know if I'd go back because I feel a bit apprehensive now.
"I'm surprised they were allowed to have so many digits entered without alarms bells going off. It just shows how important it is to check your bill at the end of your meal."
The financial advisor urged others to always check their bill fully before paying.
"We do apologise. Luckily the lady noticed so it was cancelled. Even if she had pressed enter, that amount would never have gone through," the Cote Brasserie responded.
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