{"id":388548,"date":"2025-09-01T04:22:34","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T04:22:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/388548\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T04:22:34","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T04:22:34","slug":"dine-and-dash-thief-scoffed-500-worth-of-food-at-three-different-restaurants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/388548\/","title":{"rendered":"Dine and dash thief scoffed \u00a3500 worth of food at three different restaurants"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lauren Halliday and her then-boyfriend targeted three different restaurants in Newcastle earlier this year and enjoyed fancy meals but left without paying their bill, a court heard\"NewcastleNewcastle Crown Court(Image: NCJ Media)<\/p>\n

A dine and dash thief left three restaurants without paying after scoffing \u00a3500 worth of food, a court<\/a> has heard.<\/p>\n

Lauren Halliday, 33, enjoyed expensive meals with her boyfriend at three different venues – Victors, Hula and Lui’s – in Newcastle city centre earlier this year, but on all three occasions the pair left without paying. A court was told that the diner either went for a cigarette and didn’t return, or claimed there was a problem with her banking app and promised to come back to settle her bill, which she never did.<\/p>\n

The restaurants passed CCTV<\/a> footage to the police and Halliday, who has previous convictions for similar offending, was identified alongside her then-partner. Prosecutors said the unpaid bills totalled \u00a3536.95.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Tourists ‘dine and dash’ at Italian restaurant but owner gets instant revenge<\/a>\"LaurenLauren Halliday leaving Newcastle Magistrates’ Court(Image: Simon Greener\/Newcastle Chronicle)<\/p>\n

Halliday was due to attend a hearing at Newcastle Magistrates’ Court earlier this month, but a warrant for her arrest was issued as she failed to appear, Chronicle Live<\/a> reported. She then appeared in the dock in custody to plead guilty to three counts of making off without payment.<\/p>\n

James Long, prosecuting, said Halliday and her co-accused went into Victors on February 26 this year and ordered food and drinks totalling \u00a3245. Mr Long continued: “They go out for a cigarette and never return to settle the bill.<\/p>\n

“On February 28, they go into Hula and order \u00a3167.20-worth of food and drink. This time, they say there is a problem with their banking app and the manager sympathises with them. They leave the premises, promising to come back at 8pm but they never do.”<\/p>\n

The court heard that, finally, Halliday and her partner targeted Lui’s, on Newcastle’s Quayside, and used the same banking app excuse to avoid paying a \u00a3124.75 bill. Mr Long said Halliday had a number of similar offences on her record, which started in 2018.<\/p>\n

Magistrates were told that Halliday had a string of issues in her life, including with housing, and had gone to the restaurants on a “date” thinking her partner would be paying. Her case was adjourned for the preparation of a pre-sentence report and Halliday was released on unconditional bail to next appear back at the same court on October 14.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lauren Halliday and her then-boyfriend targeted three different restaurants in Newcastle earlier this year and enjoyed fancy meals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[2208,188,12,280,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-388548","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-court-case","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-restaurants","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115127133788359035","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}