A Port Talbot couple who dined and drank have been jailed after racking up more than thousands of pounds in four restaurants

A couple who admitted a series of offenses at a string of restaurants in south Wales have been jailed after racking up bills totaling more than £1,100.

Bernard, 41, and Ann McDonagh, 39, who share more than 40 aliases and 18 dates of birth, visited five places with their family and ordered food and drink “with no intention of paying for it”.

The pair committed their first offense at the River House restaurant in Swansea on August 9 last year, when they spent £267 on food and drink before leaving without paying.

They also ordered £99.40 worth of food from the Golden Fortune takeaway in Port Talbot in January and also collected £276.60 from La Casona restaurant in Skewen on February 23.

On March 27, the couple fraudulently obtained £196 worth of food and drink from Isabella’s in Porthcawl. They committed the same offense again on April 19, taking £329.10 worth of food and drink from Belle Ciao in Swansea.

Swansea Magistrates’ Court heard five offences, which both defendants admitted, totaling £1,168.10.

Ann McDonagh also pleaded guilty to four counts of shoplifting, worth a total of £1,017.60, relating to thefts at Tesco in Swansea, as well as Tommy Hilfiger and Sainsbury’s in the Bridgend Designer Outlet.

The thefts took place from September 6 last year to February 25 this year. She stole six polo shirts and one pair of chinos worth £442 from the Tommy Hilfiger store by hiding them in her jacket.

She returned a few days later and was seen smashing the security tags off the items before trying to hide them, fleeing in a blue Ford Transit van – a moving vehicle – with £49 worth of goods.

Judge Paul Thomas jailed Ann McDonagh for 12 months and Bernard McDonagh for eight months, telling them their actions could have been motivated by “pure and utter greed”.

He told them, “From the fall of last year until the spring of this year, the two of you have embarked on a deliberate course of continued dishonesty.

“You would go to restaurants with your family. You would serve hundreds of pounds worth of food and drink and then cynically and brazenly walk away without paying.

“You would order the most expensive items on the menu, such as steaks, knowing full well that you had no intention of paying for them.”

The judge said that using children to wait in restaurants, who would then run away, pretending to go to an ATM, was “relentless exploitation”.

South Wales Police previously confirmed the pair were charged with the offenses in April “following reports of several incidents of non-payment of restaurant bills and shoplifting”.

The case emerged after the newly opened Bella Ciao in Swansea reported that a family had left without paying a £329 bill.

Writing on Facebook, the restaurant described how the woman tried to pay with a savings account card, which was declined twice.

She then told the staff that her son would be waiting inside while she went to get another card.

The post read: “…of course he doesn’t come back and then the son gets a phone call saying he has to go and run.”

It was described how the family provided a “fake” number to book a table at the restaurant, meaning the incident was reported to the police.

“To do this to anyone is disgusting, but to do this to a newly opened restaurant is even worse,” the company wrote.

River House also posted on Facebook about the couple, saying they racked up a £270 bill before leaving without paying.

Writing last August, the restaurant said: “They have a very large bill (for 5) and were ‘promised’ to get cash at a local ATM after their card was declined.

“We like to trust some people, but this was obviously carefully planned because they all just disappeared.”

Giles Hayes, representing Bernard McDonagh, said his client had brought the money with him to court to pay it back.

He described father-of-six McDonagh as “deeply ashamed and embarrassed” by his actions.

Andrew Evans, representing Ann McDonagh, said she had suffered family bereavement and may have carried out the fraud “to try to make herself feel better”.