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Journalism of Courage
Indian restaurant owners in Greater Manchester recently condemned two local families after they left without settling their bill of over 200 pounds. The incident occurred at Sai Surbhi, a family-run restaurant operated by Raman Kaur and Narinder Singh Athwa.
In a post on Instagram, the couple shared their experience along with a photo of the unpaid receipt, which totaled 200 pounds (Rs 23,800, approximately). According to their post, the group included four adults and four children who dined at the restaurant on a Saturday night. The owners said the families were polite throughout the evening.
“Apart from the normal ruckus that infants can cause wanting to run around, we had no trouble from any of them,” the post read. “They praised the food, service, the decor—everything.” The trouble began when the bill was presented. The diners reportedly attempted to use five different cards and even called others to arrange a bank transfer. However, no payment was made.
“We hate to do this but it’s our only option at this point… Unfortunately, on Saturday night we had a table of 2 families, who after eating, drinking & enjoying themselves tried 5 different cards, calling various people to transfer money, paid 0 off a £200 bill!!” the couple wrote.
The situation worsened when two of the men admitted they were unable to pay. The owners asked for identification, but the men had no ID or cash to offer. “The only issue came at the end when the families scarpered and the 2 men said, ‘sorry, we have no way of paying.’ When I requested ID, they couldn’t produce any either. No cash, nothing,” they explained.
Before leaving, the diners gave the restaurant a name and phone number, along with an apology and a promise to pay the next day. They also gave consent to have their images from CCTV shared publicly if the payment wasn’t made. “A name & number was left with an apology & the promise to pay today after they were paid, and a promise that if they didn’t pay we could release CCTV images of them across socials,” the post said.
The owners also highlighted the significant impact this incident had on their small business.
“As a local family-run business and independent, times are REALLY tough at the minute and them not paying a £200 bill has a HUGE knock-on effect for our restaurant. We can’t afford this occurrence once, let alone a repeat performance,” they wrote. “That £200 bill would pay staff, or pay our bills, or for stock.”
See the post here:
The post quickly came to light, with several users directing the onwers to release the CCTV footage, if the payment is not made. “Name and shame the paraffin lamps,” a user wrote. “This is awful. We’re so sorry this has happened to you,” another user commented.
“This is outrageous behaviour release the CCTV footage all over social media and to the police,” a third user reacted.
