The moment two men stroll from restaurant opening night apparently without paying £155 bill

A new Welsh restaurant which was left out of pocket after a suspected ‘dine and dash’ incident has released CCTV footage of two men they accused of leaving the venue without paying after racking up a £155 bill. The Welsh House in Carmarthen opened its doors to customers on Friday, October 25, having taken over a building in the town’s St Catherine’s Walk Shopping Centre which was left unoccupied following Frankie and Benny’s closure last year.

Despite a successful opening night on the whole, restaurant bosses were dismayed when they discovered that one table had built up a substantial bill and then appeared to exit the premises without paying their tab. Food and drink was served to two men, including starters, two fillet steaks, two bottles of Malbec red wine and Irish whiskey coffees. It was only after the men had left that staff realised the bill - which amounted to £155.60 - had apparently not been settled. For the latest Carmarthenshire news, sign up to our newsletter here.

An appeal was shared on social media, asking the men in question to return to the restaurant to pay the tab, with management hoping that the incident was nothing more than a “genuine mistake”. The Welsh House has now released CCTV footage of the two men leaving the restaurant at 9.47pm on its opening night. It shows them appearing to talk to each other inside the restaurant, near the exit door. The youngest of the two men puts his hand on the door, while the older man calmly looks around for a brief moment. They then appear to be talking to one another before deciding to leave.

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A second clip captured outside the Welsh House then shows the pair leaving the restaurant slowly and calmly without looking back, making their way down St Catherine’s Walk. The incident has been reported to Dyfed-Powys Police which is making enquiries. As of Friday (November 8), the force said there were no updates in its investigation.

A spokesperson for the restaurant said: “Unfortunately, on the evening of our opening day, a couple dined with us and left without paying their bill. We put a message out on social media as we truly hoped it was an oversight and that the couple would come forward and settle what they owe. The response from the public and the town has been incredible. People understand that hospitality is a tough sector.

"Average profit margins are between just 3% and 5% and a ‘dine and dash’ incident can mean the difference between making a modest profit or a loss on any day. We want to thank everyone for their support. It has been truly humbling. As a restaurant, we don’t want to ‘name and shame’ people as we hope that leaving without paying was a genuine mistake. In an ideal world, they would simply return and pay the bill, and we can all draw a line under the event.” Despite repeated appeals and media coverage, two weeks have now passed and nobody has come forward to offer an explanation or an apology, or to the pay the unpaid bill.

A high profile case of ‘dine and dash’ was played out in the courts earlier this year when Ann and Bernard McDonagh, from Sandfields in Port Talbot, were jailed after leaving a number of restaurants without paying their bills. The couple targeted five restaurants across Swansea, Neath, Port Talbot and Porthcawl. In total they racked up bills of more than £1,000 and left without paying for them, but they were later identified after CCTV images were posted online.