Shocking moment glam ‘dine-and-dash’ mums speed away from Chinese restaurant WITHOUT paying bill

By Oliver Harvey

KNOWN for its ales and hearty roasts, it was a busy Sunday afternoon at the Castle Inn when a couple appeared to be leaving without paying.

Kerry Ann Stevens and her boyfriend Daniel Alani had scoffed a prawn cocktail, breaded mushrooms and two roast chicken mains with extra lamb on the side.

They washed the lot down with a glass of Pinot Grigio wine, two cokes and an orange juice before it is claimed they tried to exit without ­settling up their £62.20 bill.

It was then that locals at the 17th Century family-run pub in the pleasant Essex village of Little Wakering took matters into their own hands.

Landlord Ken Todd, 76, told me: “Our locals are very loyal and wouldn’t let them leave until the police arrived.

“The woman apparently tried to get out the toilet window but there are bars up.

“The guy tried to go out the back door which I’d already locked because we were aware of what they were trying to do.”;

CCTV footage shown to Flying Eze reveals staff and customers preventing the pair from fleeing the pub.

Dad-of-three Ken says Stevens then spun a story that her father would pay but was at A&E with a relative.

Disgraced solicitor Stevens has become something of an unlikely poster girl for the crime phenomenon known as “dine and dash”;.

Although no figures are available solely for the scam that is blighting small businesses across Britain, industry insiders believe it is on the rise with recent spikes in South Wales and Cornwall.

Various ruses are employed. Some eat their meal then pretend it was substandard before refusing to pay.

Others, after sizing up a premises’ exit routes, simply make a run for it after a slap-up feed.

Many are serial offenders, seemingly becoming addicted to being waited on hand and foot with no intention of picking up the tab.

One recent dine and dasher even bought a round for everyone in a bar before fleeing.

Criminal law specialist Stevens, who qualified as a solicitor in 2016, is notorious locally for scoffing then scarpering.

When photos of her and electrician boyfriend Alani at the Castle Inn appeared on the Southend Crimewatch Facebook page, one user wrote: “Not again!

“She’s renowned in Essex for doing it. Jesus wept.”;

If a customer or group ‘dine-and-dash', they could be charged under section 3 of the 1978 Theft Act.

This deals with people who eat out and leave without paying.

It is considered theft if there is a failure to pay when it is known that payment is required for goods or services.

The offence can carry a prison sentence of up to two years