Pub employees thought lady pulled a ‘dine and sprint’ – however let her pay the subsequent day

A woman has shared her mortifying experience when she was mistaken for a dine-and-dasher following a hearty Sunday Roast.

Amy Fenton, a Lancashire Live reporter, had popped into The Plough at Lupton, just off Junction 36 of the M6, with her little one in tow, and racked up a bill of £59. But her cheeks turned crimson when her card got knocked back as she tried to pay.

She recounted: “After a long drive up the M6 in torrential rain, and facing an immediate return journey, I had impulsively decided to treat my daughter and me to a Sunday roast instead of toiling over the stove when we got back home.

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“Even though we hadn’t booked staff managed to find us a table in the bar and we ate our delicious roast dinners (chicken for her, pork for me) hungrily in the sanctuary of the tastefully-furnished pub as the heavens continued to pour down outside.

“Unable to manage a dessert, despite how tempting the treacle tart sounded, I asked for the bill as my daughter gathered up her crayons. ‘Oh, it’s not gone through,’ the waiter said after I tapped my card against the machine.

“I tried again but we got the same outcome. With growing dread, I logged into my internet banking and discovered a payment had come out early, unexpectedly, and as I could only log in to my other account using my laptop I found myself unable to pay.”

Amy was panicked so texted a few mates asking if they could transfer the cash into her current account and she’d pay them back the next morning. One couldn’t afford to and the others didn’t reply, so she had to face the music, reports the Mirror.

After joking to her daughter that they’d have to wash the pots, which made her start crying, Amy called the waiter over and explained her predicament. She asked if she could ring and pay the following morning.

To her amazement, the staff were understanding and agreed to her request. She said: “He took a picture of my ID and I also left one of my business cards, adding that I had previously written a glowing review about The Plough in the hope this would help to reassure him that I wasn’t planning on doing a runner.

“Clearly, the message hadn’t been shared among the staff because, as we got in the car, the barman, no doubt suspicious I was leaving without paying, challenged me.

“Of course, first thing the next morning, I did ring up and pay to which the lovely woman who answered the phone said: ‘Thanks for ringing up and settling the bill!’ as if they hadn’t expected me to. Suffice it to say I won’t be making that mistake again.”

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