Seafood bar owner slams 'aggressive' family who 'planted' plastic in their meal then 'refused to pay their £107 food bill'
- Jamie MacLean, 36, owns Mackerel Sky Seafood Bar with wife Nina, also 36
- Staff were confronted by a man and woman who said they found plastic in food
- Jamie and Nina are 99 per cent sure the plastic did not come from their kitchen
- Man went up to kitchen staff and filmed them saying they cracked his tooth
- He announced that he would not be paying a penny towards their £107 food bill
A popular seafood bar has slammed 'aggressive' customers who refused to pay their £107 food bill after 'planting' plastic in their meal.
Jamie MacLean, 36, has owned Mackerel Sky Seafood Bar with his wife Nina, also 36, for the past seven years.
He said staff at the tapas bar in Newlyn, Cornwall, were confronted by a man and a woman who were dining with their young children.
The owners called the situation 'the oldest shakedown in the books', saying they believe the family had no intention of paying the triple-figure food bill before claiming they found a piece of plastic in one of the dishes.
Jamie MacLean, 36, said staff at Mackerel Sky Seafood Bar, which he owns with his wife Nina in Newlyn, Cornwall, were confronted by a man and a woman who were dining with their young children
The man accused them of cracking his tooth with the piece of plastic in the meal, which Jamie and Nina are 99 per cent sure did not come from their kitchen, CornwallLive reported.
The man also announced that he would not be paying a penny for the meal and was 'abusive to staff', the owners explained.
They added that he came 'straight up to the kitchen' saying that he found something in his food and started filming staff, before presenting a piece of plastic, which owners said was unlike anything that had ever seen before.
Jamie said: 'We occasionally might get the odd caterpillar in lettuce or something like that but I can count on one hand the amount of incidents we have had of a foreign item found in our food and we have tons of customers every day.'
He said most customers would be more than happy to accept a free drink or the affected dish to be taken off the bill as compensation.
The man accused them of cracking his tooth with the piece of plastic in the meal, which Jamie and Nina are 99 per cent sure did not come from their kitchen, announcing that he would not be paying a penny towards their £107 food bill
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Jamie believes the family had no intention of paying their bill as they announced instantaneously that they would not be paying anything towards their bill.
He said: 'In this situation you placate them and usually they understand that mistakes can happen but he was filming and threatening the staff. It was just a classic shakedown. Then, of course, they announced that they were not going to pay anything.'
He continued: 'Obviously I was duty bound to investigate straight away but they basically knew exactly what they wanted and they were hell-bent on getting it. It's petty theft at the end of the day.'
Jamie added that the customer 'couldn't give him any straight answers', instead repeating about how cracked tooth and how he wasn't going to pay for anything.
The owners have had a lot of support after the incident, including a sympathetic note containing £20 towards the cost of the unpaid meal.
The owners have had a lot of support after the incident, including a sympathetic note containing £20 towards the cost of the unpaid meal
They want what happened at their restaurant to be a warning to other businesses in Cornwall this season.
Jamie said: 'There are people out there who are hell-bent on freeloading this year despite everything that has happened they will still take the piss.
'We get loads of really fabulous tourists every year and we love the season. We have fabulous staff and suppliers and we love what we do, but ultimately this kind of thing affects all of them as well.
'We've had lots of lovely support and the positives of this situation far outweigh the negatives though.'
He added that the restaurant is busy and you 'have to take the rough with the smooth'.
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