Pub is pressured to pay circle of relatives £75,000 after wrongly accusing them of ‘dine and sprint’ over £150 eating place invoice

A circle of relatives wrongly accused of leaving a cafe with out paying their £150 invoice had been awarded £75,000 in damages.

Peter and Ann McGirr have been maligned by means of bosses on the Horse and Jockey in Tideswell who condemned them for his or her ‘surprising behaviour’ in a public Facebook publish.

The couple, with their two kids, ate two £27 10ouncesribeye steaks with all of the trimmings and two £15.25 Derbyshire gammon steaks, washed down with a number of actual ales and lagers.

But it later emerged that the crowd did if truth be told pay the invoice in complete, even though a member of personnel forgot to ring the transaction during the until.

This was once now not sooner than the pub had already uploaded CCTV pictures of the diners on-line, with the allegations being repeated in 4 press stories.

Belfast Crown Court heard on Friday that the circle of relatives, from County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, had suffered important embarrassment and reputational harm.

Referred to as ‘dine-and-dashers’, the circle of relatives sued the pub for libel at the foundation of the ‘critical and defamatory accusations’. 

Peter Girvan, the barrister representing the circle of relatives, advised the courtroom: ‘These articles contained critical and defamatory accusations that the plaintiffs had engaged in cheating and legal habits by means of intentionally absconding with out settling a invoice of roughly £150.

‘The allegations have been totally false. The plaintiffs had now not engaged in this type of habits, and the statements made by means of the defendants had no factual foundation.’

The pub agreed to pay £75,000 in damages in addition to the circle of relatives’s criminal prices, as a part of a agreement settlement.

It approved there was once ‘no foundation in anyway’ for the allegations and apologised, the courtroom heard.

The circle of relatives’s solicitor, Darragh Carney, mentioned that they had been ‘vindicated’, studying a remark on their behalf out of doors courtroom.

He added the crowd have been ‘very glad with the agreement’ by the use of repayment for ‘defamation in their personality’.

It comes after the pub closing 12 months blamed the mistake on an ‘green member of personnel’ who was once mentioned to have taken fee by means of card device however now not revealed the invoice at the until.

A remark issued by means of the pub in July closing 12 months learn: ‘We wish to sincerely apologise to the folk concerned as a result of we’ve got now learnt that they did if truth be told pay for his or her meal.

‘There was once no dishonesty concerned from our personnel, it was once a decent mistake however we’ve got pushed aside the member of personnel accountable for the mistake.’