A man has allegedly managed to stay in a five-star hotel for nearly two years without ever paying for it.
No, he doesn’t own the hotel, and no he isn’t some sort of exiled dignitary living in a foreign country, he’s just a bloke.
However, he’s a bloke who managed to spend 603 days in a ridiculously swanky hotel before anyone twigged that he wasn’t actually supposed to be there and hadn’t been paying to stay there.
It’s almost impressive.
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Or, it would be if it wasn’t a crime to stay in places without paying for it.
In the end, the hotel claim that the man owes them more than five million rupees, which is about £55,000 or $70,000, depending on which currency you’re working with.
A lot of dough, regardless of where you live.
Police were alerted to the alleged goings on when managers from the Roseate House hotel near to Delhi airport got in touch, having discovered the man’s apparent ruse.
He’s also accused of having colluded with staff in order to hide his mounting bills, although no-one has yet been arrested.
The story goes that he checked in on May 30 2019 after booking a stay of just one night.
The Indian Express then reports that through various means he managed to stay there until January 22 2022, with a staff member allegedly extending his stay despite the fact that he never paid for it.
In terms of how that was actually done, things start to get a little bit murkier.
It seems to have included swindling with other people’s bills, or swapping one bill for another, in order to ensure that the man was able to continue staying there undetected.
Except, he was eventually detected, and now owes the hotel a lot of money, they claim.
No names have been given in relation to the case, so far.
The case was first brought before the police on May 24, but details are only starting to come out now through local media outlets.
That means that there might be more to this than meets the eye.
There are certainly a lot of questions to answer.
A senior police officer told one local news outlet: "As per hotel rules, if a guest owes more than 50,000 rupees to the hotel, the staff has to inform the seniors and push the guest for payment.
“However, this was not done.”
We’ll just have to wait and see what eventually happens.
If found guilty, he could be headed for another lengthy free stay, but this time in slightly less salubrious surroundings.
Topics: Money, Travel, Weird, World News, Crime
Tom Wood