A couple who admitted a series of “dine and dash” offences in a string of restaurants in south Wales have been jailed after they racked up bills totalling more than £1,100.
Bernard, 41, and Ann McDonagh, 39, who use more than 40 aliases and 18 dates of birth between them, had visited five venues with their family and ordered food and drinks with “no intention of paying for it”.
The pair carried out their first offence at the River House restaurant in Swansea on 9 August last year, when they spent £267 on food and drink before leaving without paying.
They also ordered £99.40 worth of food from the Golden Fortune takeaway in Port Talbot in January, and also racked up £276.60 at the La Casona restaurant in Skewen on 23 February.
On March 27, the couple dishonestly obtained £196 of food and drink from Isabella’s in Porthcawl. They committed the same offence again on April 19, taking £329.10 of food and drink from Bella Ciao in Swansea.
Swansea Magistrates’ Court heard the five offences, which both defendants admitted, totalled £1,168.10.
Ann McDonagh also pleaded guilty to four counts of shoplifting, totalling £1,017.60, relating to thefts at Tesco in Swansea as well as Tommy Hilfiger and Sainsbury’s at Bridgend Designer Outlet.
The thefts took place between September 6 last year and February 25 this year. She stole six polo shirts and one pair of chinos worth £442 from the Tommy Hilfiger store by hiding them in her gilet jacket.
She returned days later and was seen breaking security tags off items before trying to conceal them, making off in a blue Ford Transit van – a motability vehicle – with £49 of goods.
Judge Paul Thomas sentenced Ann McDonagh to 12 months in prison and Bernard McDonagh to eight months, telling them their actions could have been motivated by “pure and utter greed”.
He told them: “From the autumn of last year to spring of this year, you two set out on a deliberate course of sustained dishonesty.
“You would go to restaurants with your own family. You would have food and drink served to you to the value of hundreds of pounds and then you would cynically and brazenly leave without paying.
“You would order the most expensive items on the menu such as steaks in the full knowledge that you had no intention whatsoever of paying for them.”
The judge said that using children to wait in the restaurants, who would then run off, while pretending to go to a cashpoint was “ruthlessly exploitative”.
South Wales Police previously confirmed the pair had been charged with the offences in April “following reports of several incidents of non-payment of restaurant bills and shoplifting”.
The case emerged after the newly opened Bella Ciao in Swansea reported a family had left without paying a bill worth £329.
Writing on Facebook, the restaurant described how a woman tried to pay with a savings account card which was declined twice.
She then told staff her son would wait inside while she went to fetch a different card.
The post said: “…of course she does not return and then the son receives a phone call and says he has to go and does a runner.”
It described how the family had given a “fake” number to reserve a table at the restaurant, meaning the incident was reported to the police.
“To do this to anyone is disgusting but to do this to a newly open restaurant is even worse,” the business wrote.
The River House also posted on Facebook about the couple, stating that they had racked up a £270 bill before leaving without paying.
Writing last August, the restaurant said: “They run up a very hefty bill (for 5) and ‘promised’ to get cash from the local cash point after their card got declined.
“We like to put trust in some people, but this was obviously carefully planned as they all just disappeared.”
Representing Bernard McDonagh, Giles Hayes said his client had brought the money with him to court in order to pay it back.
He described father-of-six McDonagh as “deeply embarrassed and ashamed” by his actions.
Andrew Evans, representing Ann McDonagh, said she had suffered family bereavements and may have carried out the frauds “to try to make herself feel better”.