Restaurant meal thief Christopher Travis jailed for two years after again refusing to pay for his dinner (From Oxford Mail)

Restaurant meal thief Christopher Travis jailed for two years after again refusing to pay for his dinner

10:40am Saturday 16th February 2013 in News By Jason Collie

Christopher Travis

A MAN who plagued Oxford restaurants by dining and then refusing to pay will again be eating prison food.

Christopher Travis was twice jailed in Oxford in late 2011 for breaching an antisocial behaviour order that bans him from every pub and restaurant in England and Wales.

During his second stint of ‘dining and dashing’ the alcoholic even handed staff at the Old Tom in St Aldate’s a cutting from the Oxford Mail and boasted of his notoriety.

Yesterday he was jailed for two years for pulling the same stunt at a Spanish tapas bar in Plymouth.

When he was presented with the £20.45 bill for his tapas and glass of white wine, he patted his pockets and pulled out a 20p piece.

He told staff that he had only recently got out of prison and wanted to go back – a wish that Judge Paul Darlow accommodated at Plymouth Crown Court.

Judge Darlow told Travis: “You made an order and patted your pockets.

“You knew you weren’t going to pay for that. That was an act of fraud.

“You have been before this court time and time again for exactly the same sort of behaviour.”

Travis, now 53, was originally given the three-year Asbo by South Derbyshire magistrates in June 2010.

On October 31, 2011, he was jailed for 12 weeks after dining out at Queen’ Lane Coffee House in Oxford. Three days after his release Travis, who was living in a tent in Kidlington at the time, was arrested after going to The Crown in Cornmarket Street and the Old Tom in St Aldate’s. He received another 12 week sentence.