A Hong Kong man arrested over a suspected dine-and-dash dinner that left a woman picking up an HK$84,000 restaurant bill has been released on bail.
The 23-year-old man, surnamed Wong, was granted bail at noon on Sunday, police said, following his arrest on Friday night on suspicion of obtaining property by deception.
The incident came to light on Friday, when local media reported that a woman suspected she had been scammed after her date disappeared during a dinner at Man Wah, a Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong hotel in Central on Thursday.
The woman, 31, met her date, a man who claimed to be a lawyer and was initially believed to be around 26 or 27 years old, via messaging app Telegram, local media said.
According to HK01, the man excused himself during the dinner to use the toilet and never returned. The woman failed to reach the man and eventually settled the bill with help from friends.
Police said on Friday that they received a report from a woman at around 10pm on Thursday, saying she thought she had been scammed at a dinner. She reportedly then said she did not need police to follow up, and the case was listed as a “request for police assistance.”
The woman reported the case at the Central Police Station on Friday. That night, police arrested Wong in Tseung Kwan O and seized the clothes he was wearing at the time of the incident.
HK$71k champagne
A picture of a receipt with a bill totalling HK$84,453.60 circulated online, showing that the dinner included two orders of the “Man Wah Premium Set Dinner,” priced at HK$2,388 per person, and a bottle of 2002 Krug Clos d’Ambonnay champagne, which cost HK$71,800.
The receipt was dated around 7pm on Thursday for a table for two.
Citing anonymous sources, Sing Tao reported that Wong had called Man Wah before the dinner to ask if they had that particular champagne. The hotel said it had the 2002 and 2006 bottles, and Wong chose the 2002 bottle.
According to local media reports, Wong worked as a community officer for a pro-establishment political party.
In September 2023, he was convicted of procuring an unlawful sexual act by threats after attempting to coerce two women to have sex, Sing Tao reported. He was jailed for two years and nine months.
Last month, police arrested a 29-year-old man who allegedly tricked three women he met online into paying for lavish meals in apparent dine-and-dash date scams.
The man, reportedly a bus driver, allegedly impersonated a firefighter on one occasion and asked the women to settle bills, totalling HK$3,800 – only to become unreachable afterwards.
He was arrested on suspicion of obtaining property by deception and was released on bail pending further investigation.
