LONDON (AP) — A Welsh couple who dined out on dear foods and bolted when the invoice got here is now paying the fee — at the back of bars.
Bernard and Ann McDonagh have been sentenced to jail on Wednesday for fraud later working up tabs they didn’t pay for, together with three-course foods, the skillful cuts of meat and double parts of dessert.
Pass judgement on Paul Thomas stated in Swansea Crown Court docket that their dine and sprint spree was once pushed through “pure and utter greed.”
“You were not going to these places to feed you and your family, it was criminality for criminality’s sake — to see if you could get away with it,” he stated. “I have no doubt, apart from the greed element, you had got a buzz out of what you were able to get away with.”
Even worse, the pass judgement on stated, they have been “ruthlessly exploitative” in the usage of their kids within the ploy.
When a locker card was once declined for insufficiency of price range, they might release a minimum of one among six kids at the back of on the desk life they ostensibly going to retrieve cash from a money device.
They by no means returned to pay up and the kids would sooner or later escape to a ready car.
The couple, who coated their faces as they hustled into courtroom, in the past pleaded responsible to 5 counts of fraud. They stiffed 4 eating places and a Chinese language takeout trade of just about 1,170 kilos ($1,485) in crimes that dated again to terminating fall, a prosecutor stated.
The 2, who’ve a number of earlier convictions and worn greater than 40 aliases, were given stuck later eating places posted pictures of them on social media.
Ann McDonagh, 39, who additionally admitted 4 counts of shoplifting, was once sentenced to twelve months in jail. She additionally admitted obstructing a constable when she lied that she was once 9 months pregnant to pull back from prison later being arrested. She was once no longer anticipating a kid on the occasion.
Her lawyer, Andrew Evans, stated she was once grieving deaths within the population, even though he didn’t elaborate. He stated she could have performed the crimes to “make herself feel better.”
Bernard McDonagh, 41, was once sentenced to 8 months at the back of bars.
Protection legal professional Giles Hayes stated the husband was once “deeply embarrassed and ashamed” and had introduced the cash to courtroom to reimburse the eating places.
Brian Melley, The Related Press
