They dined on T-bone steaks, feasted on Chinese takeout, and filled up on three-course feasts. Their bills totaled more than £1,000.
But Bernard and Ann McDonagh had no intention of paying. After the married couple’s final ‘dining and running’ display, the community began to watch what was going on.
On the evening of April 19, the McDonaghs’ simple but successful plan caught the attention of Italian restaurant Bella Ciao. According to Wales Online, the business only opened its doors in Swansea at the beginning of that month.
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A large group racked up a bill of £329 after continuing to “complete their order”. When it was time to pay the bill, the group members left the restaurant and a woman stayed behind to make the payment.
He tried and failed twice to pay the bill using a savings account, but was denied. He told the staff he would leave a young member of the party at the restaurant while he ran to the car to get the other debit card that would pay the large bill.
But he did not return and the teenager later received a phone call and said words to the effect of “oh no! I’ll be there now” before running away. By sharing a photo on social media and calling for information, Bella Ciao set off a chain of events that would help the local community come forward and identify those involved; Other restaurants also claimed that they were stung by two people in the same group. .
CCTV footage of Bernard McDonagh, 41, and his wife Ann McDonagh, 39, inside Bella Ciao went viral and just over a month later they faced a judge at Swansea Crown Court to be sentenced for fraud offences. It turns out the McDonaghs, from Port Talbot, Sandfields, have been playing the same trick over and over again.
The table at Bella Ciao was booked under the name ‘Lucy Logan’ and the group arrived at the restaurant and duly ordered a three-course meal for everyone in the party. They also failed to pay the £267 bill at River House in Swansea in August last year and left without paying £267.60 for the Bella Ciao incident as well as the bill at La in just four months this year. A bill of £196 went unpaid at Casona in Skewen in February and Isabella’s in Porthcawl in March.
A Chinese parcel costing a total of £99.40 was ordered from Golden Fortune in Port Talbot in January and delivered to the couple’s address. After the food was delivered the door was suddenly slammed in the delivery driver’s face and attempts to get them to take payment and open the door again were ignored.
The five incidents combined resulted in unpaid food and drink bills totaling more than £1,150. Speaking to WalesOnline after the hearing, business owners described their shock and sadness at the deception.
Las Casona manager Kinga Szczesniak said she could not believe such “innocent-looking” customers would do such a thing. She said: “All the staff I spoke to said they never thought they would run away. “They looked very nice, there was an old man with a walking stick so they looked absolutely innocent.
“When they went to pay they walked out of the restaurant area so only two people came to pay. That’s when I realized they were going to run. One lady tried her card and it was declined, she told herself she was going to leave.” I asked him to get another card from the car. [other person] if they can stay [to make sure she came back to pay] five seconds later they ran after him. The bill came to around £270, it was huge.”
He said before the Feb. 24 incident, restaurant staff felt they could trust customers because nothing like this had ever happened before. But now they are worried and are constantly keeping an eye on it.
“I can say that we are more careful now,” he said. “We are constantly screening our customers to make sure they are paying. After about a week, we were too scared to let customers go out for a drink or a smoke because we weren’t sure if they would come back. This was normal before.”
A worker named Shirley from Golden Fortune told WalesOnline the impact on the business was “horrific”, coming at a time when many people are grappling with the cost of living crisis. She said: “It’s terrible. It’s already hard because everything is so expensive. It’s not just our job, it’s a struggle for everyone.”
“This means things are already worse [financially] and it meant we didn’t have enough money to pay our bills.” He added: “I’m happy they’re going to prison. I hope everyone sees this and thinks before they go and do bad things. “We don’t want this to happen to other businesses again.”
The pattern of deception for the McDonaghs was apparently no more complex than ordering large quantities of food and drink for themselves and the rest of the group they were dining with, even though not all of it was actually consumed. Sometimes they would order food and dessert and leave most of it uneaten.
Then, after receiving the bill, any attempt to pay using card would always fail before staff were asked where the nearest cash point was or if it would be okay if they collected “another card” from a vehicle parked nearby. The ‘eating and running’ crimes were certainly not the first time the couple had been in trouble with the law.
Bernard McDonagh has 27 previous convictions for 40 offences, including driving problems, affray, public disorder, violence, criminal damage and possession of controlled drugs. He has 23 different aliases and eight different dates of birth recorded on the police’s national computer.
Ann McDonagh, meanwhile, has 18 convictions for 36 offences, including 24 for burglary and shoplifting, as well as fraudulent use of a registration mark, obstructing a police officer and fraud by false representation. The 39-year-old man has 20 different aliases and 10 different dates of birth registered on the police’s national computer.
After being left more than £300 out of pocket in April, Bella Ciao posted on social media: “To the family who left the restaurant this evening without paying their £329 bill – shame on you! We had no way of contacting you.” “The number you used to make the reservation was fake.”
“Doing this to anyone is disgusting, but doing this to a newly opened restaurant is even worse!” Tyrone Reese, the restaurant’s manager, told the Mirror after the incident: “They were ordering the most expensive things on the menu, like T-bone steaks and the like. My wife said ‘something’s not right’. They placed their order but were also sending the plates back half empty.”
One of the other restaurants attacked, La Casona in Skewen, was also the victim of almost identical behaviour. The restaurant said: “Four people left our restaurant after the meal. One lady stayed to ‘checkout’. The woman attempted to pay with a card which was rejected.”
“He said he was going to get another card from the car.” They said another member of the party stayed behind as he left, but ran back to the car “10 seconds later.”
The couple appeared at Swansea Crown Court on Wednesday, May 29, and both previously pleaded guilty to five counts of fraud. Ann McDonagh had previously pleaded guilty to three counts of theft by burglary. Bernard McDonagh was sentenced to eight months in prison and Ann McDonagh was sentenced to 12 months.
Addressing the couple in court, Judge Paul Thomas KC said: “Over a period of approximately eight months you two deliberately engaged in a sustained fraud. You would be offered hundreds of pounds worth of food and drink and then they would cynically and brazenly leave without paying.”
“You were ordering the most expensive items on the menu, knowing you would not pay for them. You, Ann McDonagh, pretended your card was not working, claiming you would receive cash.”
When justice finally caught up with them, the McDonaghs were ordered to pay compensation totaling £2,185 (the sum of restaurant bills they had not paid and the value of items stolen by Ann McDonagh on separate occasions) within seven days. Sentencing them to prison, Judge Thomas KC told the couple that their eating spree was not intended to feed their families and the group they were dining with, but was “crime for crime’s sake”, adding: “You both had a thrill at what you could get away with.”