Bloke accidentally spends £55,000 on 'most expensive beer in history'

An Australian man accidentally spent £55,000 on one drink during a trip to the UK, describing it as the 'world's most expensive beer'.

We've all had that moment when we look back at our bank balance after a few bevvies, only to find out we've spent way more than we were supposed to.

So you can only imagine how Peter Lalor must've felt when he saw $99,983.64 (£55,300) had been taken out of his account.

But the key difference here is the hefty charge was a result of a mistake made by the bartender at a Manchester branch of the Malmaison.

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The cricket writer had been staying at the hotel ahead of a match back in 2019 when he decided to go for a bottle of the Deuchars IPA at the bar, which was supposed to cost just £5.50.

He soon realised something was up when he went to pay.

Taking to Twitter at the time, Lalor wrote: "I didn’t have my reading glasses when she presented me with a bill for the beer and when she had some problems with the machine I didn’t think much of it, but it was eventually resolved.

"I said I didn’t want a receipt and she went to leave. Something, however, made me ask: 'How much did I just pay for that beer?'

"She checked, covered her mouth, started to giggle and refused to tell me, saying only there had been a mistake and she would fix it.

“She kept giggling, I told her it needed to be fixed and fixed right now.

"She ran to get her manager who took the situation far more seriously and went about attempting to arrange a refund. She told me somebody would be in contact."

When nobody got in touch with him, Lalor decided to check, only to find the eye-watering bill had been taken from his account.

"And, there’d been a transaction fee of $2,499.59 (£1,380) to add to the pain," he added. "The fee has been refunded but not the larger amount."

The writer said the hotel had been 'very helpful' after he tweeted about the incident, however.

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A Malmaison spokesperson told PA news agency: "We are currently carrying out an investigation into what took place.

"We have been in contact with Peter to apologise and ensure this has been resolved as quickly as possible."

Thankfully Lalor saw the funny side, adding on Twitter: "It’s a good beer. The original version of it won a heap of awards, including the Supreme Champion Beer of Britain.

"But if you are thinking that no beer is worth the best part of 100,000 dollars, then I am inclined to agree with you."