Woman finds out there's no free lunch

A Taipei woman is facing six months in jail for skipping out on the bill after dining at five restaurants as well as assaulting one restaurant manager, media reported yesterday.

Hsia Feng-ying (夏鳳英), 45, feasted on such delicacies as abalone, salmon and steak at restaurants then, under a shaky pretence, refused to pay the bill.

Since January, Hsia has visited five different restaurants at which she ate an entire dinner. After she finished, she refused to pay the bill, arguing either about the prices or the quality of the food.

While some of the restaurants tried to prosecute Hsia, no charges were ever brought.

But after getting away with not paying in five separate incidents, Hsia was finally indicted and convicted. She now faces a choice of either six months in jail or paying a fine of NT$162,000.

The Panchiao District Prosecutors' Office has also charged her with assault.

Hsia allegedly pulled out a concealed machete from her handbag after an argument over the bill with the owner of a Japanese-style hotpot restaurant in Panchiao.

Hsia allegedly stabbed the restaurant owner in the left elbow.

According to yesterday's court decision, Hsia went to a Japanese-style Western cuisine restaurant on Chungshan N. Road in January and ordered French-style beef stew, French clams, and salmon.

After finishing her meal, she complained that one of her dishes had been too salty.

After she ordered and consumed two glasses of fruit juice, she began to throw a fit.

When the manager came over to handle the situation, she left the restaurant without paying the bill.

Throughout February and March, she used similar methods to dodge paying her bill at four other restaurants, sometimes complaining that the dishes had too much lard or impurities, other times accusing the restaurant of putting aspirin in the dishes.

Some restaurants backed off and offered to take away the service charge, but Hsia still insisted on not paying.

Hsia was arrested on March 9 after dining on a mini-beefsteak dinner at a Western-style restaurant in Panchiao.

The judge presiding over the case said that if Hsia had complaints about the food, she could have taken a couple of bites then complained.

The fact that at each occasion she finished the entire meal before complaining suggested that she had been planning all along to swindle a free meal.