Light sentence blamed for copycat con trick

A copycat dry-cleaning fraudster who blitzed hundreds of restaurants in London last week may have been encouraged by the light sentence dished out to a man who ran an identical scam earlier this year, say restaurateurs.

The latest fraudster, calling himself Christopher Brown, sent out letters claiming a waiter had spilled red wine on his suit and asking for £29.85 dry-cleaning costs. A doctored copy of a genuine receipt from upmarket dry-cleaners Jeeves of Belgravia was enclosed.

Earlier this year con man Simone Rossi was sentenced to just 150 hours' community service and ordered to pay £1,400 costs after being convicted of a near-identical scam across Europe.

"One hundred and fifty hours wouldn't exactly put people off doing it again," said Graham Harris, managing director of the London Restaurant Group, whose City Circle eaterie was targeted last week.

"It's not much of a deterrent, is it?" added Bruce Isaacs, owner of the Luna Nuova restaurant in Covent Garden. He believed Brown had simply read about the Rossi case and copied the scam.

Police are investigating.