Curry bill settled after 13 years

Samsul Bari with the money to meet the unpaid curry house bill

An unpaid £10 bill for a curry served 13 years ago has been settled after the restaurant owner was tracked down.

The customer confessed to police in Swansea that he had walked out without paying and included three £20 notes asking officers to pass them on.

But the restaurateur had moved away and police spent nearly five months trying to track him down.

Samsul Bari, 44, who now lives in Pembroke said: "I really appreciate his honesty."

Officers at Cockett Police Station put out an appeal to track down the owner of the restaurant described in the letter they received in March this year.

Whoever sent the letter had remembered the location of the venue but not its name.

But police were able to narrow it down to one establishment, the Seaview Tandoori.

'Legal owner'

However, this was demolished several years ago to make way for flats.

Mr Bari said the first he knew of the mystery letter was when a friend rang to tell him of the police appeal.

He said: "He said 'I'm sure this is your one'. But at the time, the police did not put out the name of the restaurant."

I was quite surprised because 13 years is quite long time ago for someone to realise they have made a mistake and realise they have done the wrong thing Samsul Bari

Mr Bari said one of his nephews rang the police to say he thought they were talking about the restaurant owned by his family.

"I contacted the police and said I was the legal owner. I went there and showed them my identification and they gave me the money."

Mr Bari, who came to the UK from Bangladesh in 1978, opened his first restaurant on Swansea's Kingsway in 1985.

He moved to Mumbles in 1991 and opened his latest business, the Monsoon Indian Takeaway in Pembroke, in 2001.

He said: "I was quite surprised because 13 years is quite long time ago for someone to realise they have made a mistake and realise they have done the wrong thing. "

But Mr Bari said he does not remember who the customer was.

"I was in the kitchen. I was not serving that day. Even if I did remember, it's quite a long time ago."