Man admits brazen £350 dine and dash fraud from two London restaurants

A South London man has admitted to racking up unpaid bills of nearly £350 after dining and dashing at two venues earlier this year.

Simon Hogg, 35, of Little Queens Road, Teddington, pleaded guilty to two counts of making off without payment at Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday.

Mr Hogg left La Familia in Hampton Hill without paying a bill of £174.50 on January 26, and later failed to pay a bill of £173.35 at pub The Bishop in Kingston on April 9. This left him with a total unpaid bill of £347.85 across both venues.

He was ordered to pay the sum, which will be deducted from his benefits, after pleading guilty to the offences in court.

At the hearing, prosecutor Keshia Denny said Mr Hogg’s bank card was ‘declined due to insufficient funds’ when he tried to pay for his meal at La Familia on January 26 and that he then manually entered the card number but it was ‘discovered that it was a fake number’.

She said he offered to take out cash to pay the bill, but ‘left, jumped the fence and the staff lost sight of him’.

Ms Denny said Mr Hogg’s card was also declined when he tried to pay his bill at The Bishop on April 9, and that he made an ‘excuse to go to the cashpoint and then never returned to make the payment’. She said he was identified after his image was circulated in a local community group. Ms Denny argued Mr Hogg had ‘no intention of paying’ for the bills in both incidents.

Mr Hogg, who was not represented by a barrister at the hearing, told the court he was ‘terribly sorry’ for the offences and that he had ‘every intention of paying’ the bills. He said he used to drink ‘too much’ alcohol which reacted badly with medication he took for ‘severe mental health issues’, including bipolar disorder, depression and anxiety. He said he had recently stopped drinking alcohol and that he was happy to pay what he could each month until the debt was settled.

Judge Matthew Preston said he had decided to reduce Mr Hogg’s fine due to his early guilty plea and the circumstances he had outlined. He told Mr Hogg he can’t go to restaurants and pubs, ‘rack up a bill… and run’ as this results in ‘debt on these organisations’.

He ordered Mr Hogg to pay £347.85 in compensation to the venues, including £174.50 to La Familia and £173.35 to The Bishop, along with a victim surcharge of £13. Mr Hogg must pay the sum under a deduction from benefit order.