Police chief in pub wine ‘rant’
A POLICE and Crime Commissioner has been accused of making a waitress cry after allegedly shouting at her over a third glass of wine on a lunchtime bill.
Ann Barnes, the PCC for Kent, was eating with her husband, Tony, at the Coach and Horses pub in the village of Lyminge on Sunday.
Steven Dale, the pub manager, said the crime commis- sioner, who lives in the village, “hit the roof ” and made threats that she would never return to the pub after being charged for three glasses of wine instead of two.
He said Mrs Barnes made the waitress cry after saying she would tell all her friends, family and colleagues about the service at the pub.
One local, who asked not to be named, said: “She should be ashamed of her behaviour. It was either a simple mix-up or she forgot how many glasses of wine she had. Either way it’s just £5.75 and not worth making someone cry over.”
The pub cancelled the £5.75 charge, but that did not stop Mrs Barnes allegedly storming out of the pub.
Mr Dale said yesterday: “Her husband was happy but she stood up in front of everyone and said how unhappy she was and insisted she had only had two glasses.
“She said the previous landlady would not have allowed it. I was not available to speak to her because we had a busy lunch, so she carried on and made threats in terms of never coming back and telling her friends.”
Mrs Barnes, who is up for re-election next year, earns £85,000 a year. She hit the headlines after employing a 17-year-old “youth crime tsar”, Paris Brown, who resigned in 2013 after making racist and anti-gay comments on Twitter.
Writing on her personal Twitter account, in a now-deleted tweet, Mrs Barnes said: “What do you do when overcharged for lunch at Lyminge pub and the pub’s owner ‘too busy’ to speak to a very upset customer.”