Moment serial 'dine and dasher' wanted over 'food thefts' at string of ... trends now

This is the moment a suspected 'dine and dasher' wanted for 'food thefts' at a string of restaurants across south Wales 'does a runner' after allegedly asking staff where the nearest cashpoint was because her 'card wasn't working'.

CCTV footage exclusively obtained by MailOnline shows the woman leaving The Yard Pizzeria in Cowbridge, having allegedly built up a £151 tab with a group of six in March this year. 

The woman is part of a couple who are accused of running a 'dine and dash racket' that has allegedly hit seven restaurants within a 30-mile radius across the country since at least August last year.

Each establishment claims the two arrive in a Blue Ford van, sit with large groups of people and order the most expensive dishes on the menu - typically steaks - before allegedly fleeing after the bill arrives.

Emily Langford, the manager of the family-run restaurant the Yard, said each member of the group ordered starters, mains and two bottles of fizzy drinks each.

Once they had finished, most of them allegedly left the premises, leaving the woman to settle the tab. 

She allegedly came to the counter and tried to pay with her card, which was declined twice, before asking staff for the nearest cashpoint and disappearing out of sight after walking out the door.

Ms Langford told MailOnline: 'They left the woman to pay. And she stood up and said 'Oh, is it okay? If I come to the bar to pay?' and we said that was fine.

'She was basically buttering me and my mum up and was saying lots of nice things to us. But as she put her card in it got declined. She was like 'oh that's weird' and it declined again.

'She said she would call her son and sort out a bank transfer, but we weren't comfortable with that and asked if she could pay in cash and showed her where the nearest cash point was.

'I showed her where it was and as I turned my head back through the door to tell my mum she was at the cash point, by the time I turned around again she was gone.'

This 'dine and dash' playbook has been allegedly deployed by the couple in each of the outlets they have hit in the last year.

Despite all seven restaurants reporting the couple to the police, the force are still working to identify them and track them down.

Ms Langford said the theft was 'devastating' for her restaurant, which she runs with both her mother and father.

She said: 'It's devastating. Because obviously, all hospitality is really, really struggling at the minute, like we'll put our hands up and say we're not doing as well as we were doing a couple of years ago, and I'm sure that a lot of hospitality are feeling the same as well, and we know restaurants that are closing around us.

'There's not many restaurants left here in Cowbridge and the High Street here is dying. I just don't want it to happen to anybody else.'

Staff at the Bella Ciao Italian restaurant in Port Talbot say they were the latest victims of this heist when the couple sat with a group of eight in their restaurant on Friday night and allegedly left without paying the £329 bill.