Dine and dash dilemma
Sunday, 2 Jun 2019
by martin carvalho, rahimy rahim, and farik zolkepli
Exceptions to the rule: While most restaurants hesitate to display pictures of diners who do not pay, retail stores like this supermart often show images of shoplifters.
PETALING JAYA: Restaurants who have had to deal with the foreign worker issue now bear another crisis – “eat-and-run” patrons.
To counter the problem, some of the mainly Indian Muslim restaurants have found ways to deal with the issue, such as placing mugshots of such customers at their cashiers.
But one restaurant owner in Subang Jaya who showd CCTV images of these offenders eventually removed it as he felt bad about it.
“Some patrons thought these people were missing or wanted by police,” he said.
However, they have acknowledged the increasing number of such offenders.
Abdul Mukhthahir Ibrahim, manager of the Salam Sentosa chain restaurants, observed the modus operandi of diners who wanted to avoid paying.
“They will sometimes come in big groups, consisting of five or more people, and sit down for a long time.
“In the end, only one customer will pay his own bill at the cashier while the rest leave the restaurant one by one,” he added.
There were also diners, he said, who would turn up at peak hours when staff were busy.
Another type would ask for takeaway and then make an excuse about having left their money in their vehicle, he said.
“But they would take off on their motorcycle without paying.”
He said there were also those who would leave behind their belongings as a sign that they would return to settle the bill.
“However, some of them never turn up to even collect their IC,” he added.
Mukhthahir said his staff resorted to taking photos of customers who claimed they wanted to retrieve their wallet from their car.
These photos were taken with the customers’ consent, he added.
Original Penang Kayu Nasi Kandar managing director Burhan Mohamed said eat-and-run cases were common in his restaurants.
“Someone ordered four packs of fried rice, four fried noodles and three cigarettes packs.
We usually ask for cash first but the customer said he had left his wallet in his car. He never came back,” he said.
However, he ruled out the idea of publicly displaying the photos of such culprits.
“If they want to cheat, it’s hard for us to stop them,” he said.
Malaysian Indian Muslim Restaurant Owners Association president Ayoob Khan Muhamad Yakub said operators were facing more patrons fleeing without paying.
“It usually involves large groups that sit outside the restaurant premises to watch live football matches,” he said.
“They usually won’t patronise the restaurant once they know they can be recognised.”
Malaysian Indian Restaurant Owners Association president T. Muthusamy, however, said some diners were merely forgetful.
“It even happened to myself days ago. So I returned to the shop to pay,” he added.
Muthusamy suggested that restaurants upgrade their table billing system.
Some businesses are known to display photographs only of shoplifters.
A pharmacy placed the images of shoplifters along the walkway inside a shopping mall in Petaling Jaya.
One fruit wholesaler in Subang Jaya put up images of those accused at the entrance of the shop.
Read more at https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2019/06/02/dine-and-dash-dilemma/#3EcdHbJAdd7ZIqgX.99
‘Showing photos of diners can be defamatory’
NATION
Sunday, 2 Jun 2019
image: https://www.thestar.com.my/~/media/online/2019/06/02/00/03/20190204-022749-1.ashx/?w=620&h=413&crop=1&hash=FE7D12475F7CD666B4FF551942C45C53E94F68FA
PETALING JAYA: You keep getting customers who evade paying their bills. And yes, it’s tempting to name and shame them.
But criminal lawyer Kitson Foong advised caution if restaurant operators wanted to display CCTV images of offending diners.
“There must be a caption with the photograph asking the person to contact the restaurant as he may have forgotten to pay.”
Otherwise, he said, it could be defamation if the intention was to shame the person or if the display was accusatory in nature.
“The first is defamation. This depends on how the photos are displayed and described.
“This is because the justification is a defence to defamation. If it is just a recording or a photo shown with factual description of what happened, then arguably the shop owner is just stating a fact.
“But let’s say you label them ‘thieves’. This implies the person intentionally committed a crime.”
He said the shop owner might get into trouble in scenarios where the patron simply forgot to pay up.
“In such a case, there is no intention to commit a crime,” he added.
Selangor police chief Comm Datuk Noor Azam Jamaludin urged restaurant owners to lodge police reports if they suffered losses due to non-paying customers.
He said there had been no such reports.
“Putting up photographs of customers who failed to pay their bills is the prerogative of the restaurant operator,” he said, adding that some of these patrons could have just been forgetful.
Read more at https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2019/06/02/showing-photos-of-diners-can-be-defamatory/#LsRB8eqgrrWp9bFK.99
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