A ‘dine and dash’ couple fled a restaurant after knocking back 14 Baby Guinness shots during their expensive steak dinner.
The couple, who visited The Halfway House restaurant in Brentwood, Essex, on May 16, racked up a £231.30 bill then ran away across the car park without paying.
CCTV footage showed a server seating the runaway couple before they asked to move to a table closer to the restaurant’s back door – a request that general manager Deanne Perkins believes was planned.
Once sitting down, the pair ordered two steaks, several starters and sides, ice cream and 14 Baby Guinness shots, which stunned Ms Perkins given the large portion sizes.
The 45-year-old claimed the pair cleaned their plates before the woman left the restaurant’s front door while chatting on a phone.
Footage then showed the man check to see whether any staff were nearby before bolting out of the back door.
Cameras outside the restaurant then captured the couple running away across the car park, having not paid a penny of their £231.30 bill.
Ms Perkins reported the ‘ultimate dine and dash’ couple to the police and shared the footage online to warn nearby businesses.
A couple visited The Halfway House restaurant in Brentwood, Essex, where they racked up a £231.30 bill before running away
Footage showed a server seating the runaway couple before they asked to move to a table closer to the restaurant’s back door – a request believed to be pre-meditated
Cameras outside the restaurant captured the couple running across the car park after they fled
She claimed the woman was shamed into returning to pay £90 for her half of the feast, but said the man had not come back to pay the remaining £141.30.
When she returned, the dine and dasher reportedly said she had no idea she had left without paying.
The general manager, from Great Baddow in Essex said: ‘They just seemed like a normal couple. They asked to sit, they moved from a small table to a big table.
‘It’s away from everyone but sometimes couples do that to have a private meal. They specifically asked for that table – it did seem pre-meditated.
‘He had two tempura prawns and she had a prawn cocktail, steaks and cocktails and 14 Baby Guinness shots. They ordered onion rings, garlic bread and ice cream.’
Ms Perkins said it was crazy the couple polished off their meal because ‘anyone that comes struggles to finish their meals’ due to the hefty portions.
During the meal, the couple were ‘absolutely fine and chatty’ and showed ‘no indication any of this would happen’, she said.
Ms Perkins added: ‘I can’t say for sure but it does seem that way [pre-meditated] as they ordered so much food and drink and requested to sit near the door.
‘I felt disgusted that somebody would do that, especially when we are a small business. It’s such a kick in the teeth.’
Ms Perkins said the incident was demoralising but since posting the footage online, support from the public had been ‘fantastic’.
She said: ‘All of our customers are regulars – they come at the same time, sit on the same tables, order the same meals.
‘It’s upsetting when random customers come in and do something like this. Every loss at this time is a big loss for a small business.’
An Essex Police spokesperson said: ‘We continue to seek a man in connection with a report of making off without payment from a business in West Horndon on 16 May.’
The couple’s antics come after a spate of dine and dashes across the UK in 2026.
One dine and dash couple were nearly caught out by their unsuspecting children as the family of four left a fish and chip shop in Devon after their £45 meal on May 24.
In Hastings, East Sussex, one group of dine and dashers refused to pay their £146 bill and even threatened staff at a restaurant on February 28.
Another group of dine and dashers strolled out of a restaurant in Manchester on Valentine’s Day after feasting on steaks, pornstar martinis and ice cream totalling £234.45.
