Restaurants warned about new scam

03 December 2008
Restaurants warned about new scam

A restaurateur has fallen victim to what Trading Standards chiefs believe to be the first ‘scam' of its kind.

Guiseppe Gatto, who owns the La Tosca restaurant in Leicester, thought he was helping a neighbouring business when he agreed to take delivery of a parcel.

The deliverer couldn't take payment over the phone and Gatto agreed to pay 'around £65,' with B2B Mortgage re-paying him for the favour.

"An hour later," said Guiseppe "a guy came to the restaurant with an official looking envelope and said it was £95, which I paid. He gave me a printed receipt and left."

The only trouble was that the original phone call had not been from B2B Mortgage and the envelope contained nothing but Subway flyers.

B2B Mortgage owner, John Booker, said: "I feel sorry for Guiseppe. He was trying to be neighbourly."

Leicester Trading Standards said: "This is a completely new one on us, so we ask all businesses to be aware."

London restaurants warned over dry-cleaning scam>>

London restaurants hit by conmen using fake credit cards>>

London restaurateurs warned to be on guard after ‘Time Out' con artists strike>>

Internet booking scam strikes Yorkshire hotel>>

By Roger Bushby

E-mail your comments to Robert Bushby here.

Caterersearch.com jobs
Looking for a new job? Find your next restaurant job here with Caterersearch.com jobs

The Caterer Blog](http://www.caterersearch.com/blogs/catering-news-blog/) Catch up with more news and gossip on the Caterer Blog here
[Newsletters For the latest hospitality news, sign up for our e-mail newsletters.
The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking