An Australian cricket journalist was mistakenly charged £55,000 for a single bottle of beer in the Malmaison Hotel in Manchester.
Peter Lalor ordered the £5.50 Deuchers IPA at the city hotel before being stunned to discover he had been charged £55,315.12 (61.640.40€)
Mr Lalor, who was in the city to cover the Ashes series, now believes he drank “the most expensive beer in history”.
A spokesman for the hotel apologised and said an investigation had been launched.
However, the money left Mr Lalor’s bank account and he says he was told it would take 10 business days for the refund to be processed.
The Journalist, who writes for ‘The Australian’ newspaper, said he had alerted the barmaid after having a “sixth sense that something had gone wrong”. Strangely he also writes about beer in his home country and did admit that the beer that he consumed was excellent if not a little OTT in price.
“Australians find England pretty expensive usually, but this takes the cake,” he said.
“That’s a lot of money. I’m just a cricket writer, I don’t earn big bucks and it’s costing me in interest.”
Writing on Twitter, he said: “I didn’t have my reading glasses when she presented me with a bill. 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.”
He’s still waiting!
(Some content courtesy of BBC News)
