CUSTOMERS who 'dined and dashed' at a Musselburgh restaurant have now settled their bill following an online appeal.

Ravelston House Hotel, on the town's North High Street, threatened to make public CCTV footage of customers who left without paying on the afternoon of Wednesday, September 18.

The group, comprising three women and a child, ordered two courses along with drinks and, once finished, left the restaurant one by one, leaving the £70 bill unpaid. If it had not been Half-Price Wednesday, the bill would have been £140.

Hotel owner Dean Ivinson made a public appeal for the group to get in touch and said that, if they did not, he would release CCTV footage which showed their faces, as well as their car and its registration plate.

READ MORE: Ravelston House Hotel boss's anger at 'dine and dash' women and child

Mr Ivinson was pleased to get the money he was owed but was of the opinion that the ‘dine and dash’ was “deliberate”.

He said: “The people involved [when they came forward] claimed that they had asked a waiter for the bill and it never came – but looking at the CCTV, we can see that that was not the case.”

A member of the group phoned the hotel at the end of last week to settle the bill.

Mr Ivinson said: “They said they were local and I think they were embarrassed to be recognised if they went into the hotel. They had seen the post online. I think they were just worried that we would share the footage.”

Mr Ivinson believes that posting his appeal online “definitely helped” to fix the situation and added: “There was a lot of responses and a lot of support.”