Muswell Hill restaurant dodges possible 'scam'

La Rotonda say they ‘believe we are not the only ones’

A Muswell Hill restaurant believes it has dodged a possible “scam” after a customer entered and asked front staff to pay for a dry cleaning fee.

La Rotonda took to X to describe the event yesterday (13th September) in which the customer approached the till “complaining that one of our front staff spilled wine over his mom’s dress three weeks ago”.

La Rotonda allege that the customer asked for nearly £30 to pay for dry cleaning – but was unable to provide a receipt for the costs – which the front staff paid to avoid creating a disturbance within the restaurant.

Oksana, the owner of La Rotonda, told HCP: “He approached front staff and my husband walked in at the same time.

“He walked out of the restaurant. [My husband] went behind him and caught up with him in the street.

“Instead of giving a receipt he gave a telephone number.”

Oksana said that when they later tried to call this number it “was not working”.

The incident was reported to the police but Oksana said that they were told that because they had already given money to the customer “they weren’t able to do anything about it”.

Later that day, Oksana said her husband saw the same person waiting at a bus stop and approached them, after which “the guy gave the money back” and asked that they do not involve the police.

Oksana added: “We believe we are not the only ones.

“We’ve had a few incidents but not anything that’s gone that far.”

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