‘Dine & dash’ NEWLYWEDS flee their own wedding reception for honeymoon…without paying four-figure bill for 80-guest meal
A RESTAURANT owner was left furious after a married couple fled the country without paying for their £7,000 banquet bill.
Moreno Priorietti and Andrae Svenja – a local 40-year-old construction contractor and his 25-year-old German wife – were married at the end of August in Frosinone, southeast of Rome.
The couple tied the knot next to the venue’s swimming pool, before the restaurant – described as a typical Ciociaria eatery – put on a banquet for their 80 guests.
But when the owner of Ristorante La Rotonda went to collect their bill the following day, the newlyweds were nowhere to be seen.
The couple had already paid a deposit of 3,300 euros (£2,859) and agreed to pay the final bill – which totalled 8,800 euros (£7,624) including the deposit – for the Wednesday after the wedding.
However, Italian media reports that the groom did not pay the day after the wedding as he had agreed with the owner, Enzo Fabrizi.
When Enzo went to collect their bill, the newlyweds were nowhere to be seen.
The restaurant owner had waited for the groom to show up at the venue until late in the evening and even tried to call him.
Mr Fabrizi then managed to trace down the groom’s parents, who had been at the tasting session earlier in the year, but had no response from them either.
He even went to the couple’s address but was shocked when neighbours said the newlyweds had not been heard from since the day after the wedding.
As a result, Enzo took up matters with the police, who discovered that the couple had driven to Rome and flown to Frankfurt, Germany after the party.
Speaking to the MailOnline, Mr Fabrizi said: “We had correspondence with them until a few weeks ago and they kept saying they would pay but then no money arrived.
“After a while the requests we sent them to settle the bill were unanswered and then I noticed they had both deleted their profiles from Facebook.
“For a small place like mine 8,000 Euro is a considerable amount of money and I need to have this bill settled as I have suppliers to pay and other overheads.”
Enzo added that the unsettled matter could put his seafood restaurant out of business.
He has now hired a lawyer to help deal with the matter and even claims that he is happy to drop the legal action as soon as the couple pay.
However, he can’t get any response for them.
“It has never happened in many years of business,” Enzo told Corriere Della Sera newspaper.
“At most, someone was late, but it had never happened that the spouses disappeared without having paid the bill for the wedding banquet.”
The banquet cost around 90 euros (£77) per-person, while decorations – such as flowers – and other extras cost 400 euros (£346) alone.
Enzo added: “Immediately after [the ceremony] the guests, almost all from Ferentino and about ten Germans, sat down at the table and lunch began.
“They ate, danced and drank to their heart’s content. They left at 10pm, but they were almost all drunk.”
Enzo even spoke to the groom that night to discuss finances.
“We did the calculations and he shook my hand and told me he would come by the next day to pay,” he said.
“The next day, however, he took the plane to Germany.”
However, Mr Fabrizi will not stop until he gets the money he is owed.
He told Corriere Della Sera: “I will not give him peace until he has paid every penny.
“I’ve been a restaurateur for 40 years, and I’ve never had a misadventure like this happen to me.”
Police are continuing to investigate the whereabouts of the couple and the groom is now wanted for fraudulent insolvency.