A pub which wrongly accused a family of leaving a restaurant without paying their £150 bill has been ordered to pay them £75,000, after making their images go viral on Facebook.

The Horse and Jockey in Tideswell, Derbyshire, made a public post on Facebook claiming Peter McGirr, his wife Ann, and their two children failed to pay for their food.

The post featured CCTV images of the diners which were shared widely on Facebook, and were also then shared in four press reports. What a nightmare!

After the accusations and images went viral, the pub realised that the family did in fact pay for their meal, which included two £27 10oz ribeye steaks, two £15.25 Derbyshire gammon steaks and several beers.

It turns out a member of staff had taken a card payment but forgot to ring the transaction through the till. Whoops.

Belfast Crown Court heard that the family had suffered ‘significant embarrassment and reputational damage’.

They sued the pub for libel and have now been rewardrd £75,000 in damages + their legal costs.

The pub blamed the mistake on an ‘inexperienced member of staff’ who they have now sacked. The pub’s statement reads:

‘We want to sincerely apologise to the people involved because we have now learnt that they did in fact pay for their meal.

‘There was no dishonesty involved from our staff, it was an honest mistake but we have dismissed the member of staff responsible for the error.’

I’m not really sure that it’s fair to sack the inexperienced staff member over this. After all, the biggest mistake the pub made was was starting an online witch hunt, instead of making sure of the details. Wouldn’t it have been smarter to go to the police instead? That way you avoid the risk of making serious and defamatory accusations against an innocent family on Facebook, which included referring to them as ‘dine and dashers’. The shame!

The pub should have really sacked the person who jumped the gun and went online with it, and not the teenaged, underpaid waiter who they hadn’t trained properly. Then again if that was the owner’s call, they’re hardly going to sack themselves are they?

Either way, £75,000 is a serious hit to take. Just goes to show you need to be 100% sure of things before you stick them online.

For the man who went viral for dine and dashing on a Hinge date after she brought a friend with her, click HERE.