Couple call police after hotel accuses them of 'robbing it' by not paying wedding bill

A newlywed couple are in a battle of words with a wedding venue owner over not wanting to fully pay their bill because they have 'ruined our big day'.

Hotel bosses have a different story, however, as they have accused the pair of running off without paying their £1,550 bill.

Clare Nattrass and Joanne Robinson have given the ultimatum that they will only pay their bill if £200 is taken off because their wedding breakfast buffet didn't include ribs or mini burgers.

The couple also claimed that police were forced to get involved because they felt so threatened.

Claire told MailOnline: "We've been made out to be acting like criminals, it's ruined our big day."

However, the Town House hotel in Durham isn't backing up any of their claims and has called the couple out on its social media page.

Joanne said: "This post by the hotel has completely ruined our wedding day, we are devastated to be accused of refusing to pay the bill as if we are some kind of fraudsters.

"The only parts of the bill we're refusing to pay is £200 for the buffet at night and the corkage for the wine we brought in.

"We were promised ribs and mini burgers and they didn't have either and the food was cleared away after half an hour with many of our guess not being fed.

"And there wasn't supposed to be any corkage charge, that was landed on us out of the blue. We've contacted Durham trading standards and they are investigating.

"On Monday people from the hotel turned up at our flat. We were terrified and called the police to say we were under threat. The police came out and they are also investigating.

"The rest of the bill will be paid later this week once we've been paid. This was always the arrangement from day one.

"To be treated like this is absolutely appalling, I've had to delete my social media and we daren't leave our home, the venue has behaved appallingly."

But hotel manager Luke Hay said in response to the accusation: "They refused to pay anything and left behind a bill of £1,150. They claimed they had paid a deposit of £800 but our paperwork shows they only paid £400 - so they actually owe us £1,550.

"All their complaints are nonsense. They were aware of the corkage charge and that we wouldn't be able to provide their mini burgers and ribs.

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"It was agreed beforehand that there would be replacements for those items and they were happy with that. It's completely untrue as well that the buffet was taken away after 30 minutes.

"This whole thing has left us feeling very angry and frustrated. Weddings at our venue would normally cost around £5,000 but we helped this couple because we felt sorry for them.

"They have seen it cancelled already and have been regular customers here so they have ended up have a wedding at a greatly reduced rate.

"It worked out at £16 a head for a three-course meal, you could barely get that at McDonald's - and still they left without paying.

"It's just very sad when you've tried so hard to help people that this is the outcome.

"Staff from the hotel attended their flat to establish their address and formally request the money we are owed, there were no threats made and it was not in any way a threatening situation.

"They called the police making all kinds of inaccurate allegations, which was just a waste of police time.

"We just want the bill to be paid, we'll even waive the corkage if that's their problem because we just want to put this behind us and move on as quickly as possible."

LADbible has contacted Durham Police for comment.