CHRISTOPHER Travis enjoyed dining out at restaurants across the country.

It’s just the 52-year-old didn’t enjoy picking up the bill too often.

Even an antisocial behaviour order (Asbo) banning him from every restaurant and pub in England and Wales failed to stop him from ‘doing a runner’.

Now Travis is once again behind bars after getting collared for not paying to dine in an Oxford restaurant for the fourth time.

Last night restaurant owners welcomed Oxford magistrates’ decision to dish out a jail sentence, but one questioned how a nationwide Asbo could be enforced.

Jeremy Mogford, owner of the Old Bank Hotel and Quod restaurant in High Street, Oxford, where Travis dined and didn’t pay last November, questioned the point of the order.

He said: “Is it practical? He will get away with it again and again.

“I think what someone needs to do is send a photograph of him to every bar and restaurant in the country, and that’s not practical.”

Travis, of no fixed abode, was arrested after he left without paying his £17.85 bill at Queen’s Lane Coffee House in the centre of Oxford, on Saturday.

He was given a three year Asbo at South Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court in June 2010, after he dined out at a Derby restaurant and ran off without paying the bill.

But since being given the order Travis continued to dine out for free, falling foul of the law in Lincolnshire, before arriving in Oxfordshire last year.

On Monday, the 52-year-old was hauled before Oxford magistrates and jailed for 12 weeks.

He was charged with breaching the terms of his Asbo, making off without payment and using threatening words or behaviour.

Oxford restaurateur Clinton Pugh, who owns Cafe CoCo, said: “The economy is very, very difficult for restaurants at the moment and we can do without it.

“Restaurants have not got time to deal with the police, but I agree he should go to jail.”

Mr Mogford added: “This kind of crime has happened very rarely here, but we have found that the police have always been really pretty good on this particular problem.”

Ed Turner, deputy leader of Oxford City Council, said last night: “Clearly, we welcome that the Oxford Mail is now putting the information out and about in Oxford so that people can look out for this sort of thing happening.

“I think the point of a nationwide Asbo will make it easier for this person to be prosecuted.

“I am glad he has been dealt with through the courts and let’s hope that this behaviour now stops.”