He eats, he runs: restaurants on alert for the galloping gourmet

German ‘scrounger’ lives the high life then skips on bills

ROME // They say there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

But in Florence one homeless German has proved it is possible to get away with bagging free meals and drinks all over town – if you have the nerve.

Roland Siedler has enjoyed fine dining at some of the swankiest restaurants in Florence without ever paying a penny.

When the bill arrives, he simply says: “The Italians are paying.”

Mr Siedler, 37, has caused a string of complaints, and local newspapers have dubbed him “the scrounger of Florence”.

He speaks Italian and English as well as his native German and swears in all three when drunk and apprehended by the police, although restaurant staff describe him as courteous.

At the historic Caffe Giacosa, Mr Siedler enjoyed seven beers and some snacks, for a bill of €62. He a left a note telling staff: “The Catholic Church has paid.”

Mr Siedler’s spree first came to attention on May 31 when he refused to pay for drinks at a pub in the famous Piazza del Duomo in central Florence. Police received more complaints about him over the following days. On June 6, there was a complaint from a restaurant in the town of Greve, in the Tuscan countryside 31 kilometres south of Florence, where Mr Siedler had run off without paying for his T-bone steak. He also downed single-malt whisky in the Bar Palazzo Vecchio.

Local police have picked him up several times and warned him, but his offences are considered too minor to warrant his arrest and would not necessarily lead to conviction.

Italy’s highest court ruled last year that stealing small amounts of food is not a crime by overturning the conviction and jail sentence of a homeless man who shoplifted cheese and sausages worth €4, or Dh16.

But the judges said this applied only in cases of “immediate and essential need” for food, which lawyers might struggle to apply to Mr Siedler’s refined tastes.