Man attempts to flee 5-star hotel without paying bill, held

Mumbai: The Cuffe Parade police arrested a 61-year-old man, who was trying to flee from the Vivanta by Taj Hotel without paying his bills. The man spent two days in the hotel, living it up in style, before he was caught fleeing by the hotel staff. This was the second time that he was pulling this stunt in the same hotel. He had booked a room here in 2014 but had managed to escape. But this time he was not so lucky.

According to the police, the man, Bhimsent John, was on a spree of cheating five star hotels ever since he had his former employers, a tour and travel agency where he worked in 1997, had not paid him his dues.

A resident of Tamil Nadu, John arrived in Mumbai in the first week of June. On June 4, he booked a room in the hotel through its centralized reservation service and checked into a suite on June 6. He was caught the next night while trying to flee. “John enjoyed services of the hotel and was trying to flee, when the hotel staff apprehended him. When they presented him with a bill of `50,000, he claimed that his friends would pay the bill,” said Rashmi Karandikar, spokeswoman for the Mumbai police.

The staff informed the Cuffe Parade police who arrested him. Interrogations revealed that he had committed a similar offence in 2014 and had similar cases registered in Tamil Nadu. According to the cops, he had decided to dupe at least 200 hotels in a similar manner to avenge his former employers.

The police have registered a case under Section 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 427 of the IPC.