Criminal Law: Liability for Non-Payment at a Restaurant and Sexual Assault

Criminal Law

Table of Contents
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................3
TASK ..............................................................................................................................................3
Question 1:..................................................................................................................................3
Answer b. ...................................................................................................................................5
Question 2: .................................................................................................................................7
Question 4: ...............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................16

MAIN BODY
TASK
Question 1:
Answer a).Consider the criminal liability of Bernice.
From the following case where Bernice goes to a restaurant and orders meal and wine. The
situation then leads to Bernice drinking her wine and complaining about the food as
undercooked. As soon as the waiter goes to change the dish, Bernice leaves the restaurant
without paying. Bernice has previously been in debt as her boyfriend Adam left their rented
apartment and she was not able to pay the whole rent.
The situation where Bernice leaves without paying at the restaurant imposes criminal liability on
Bernice due to non payment of the bill at the restaurant.
Criminal liability means the liability of a person that is legally imposed due to the legal
obligations. In this a person is personally responsible for breaking the law and is held liable for
it. This criminal liability refers to the charges imposed that determines the criminal liability of a
person. These charges can be in the form of punishments, fines or compensation to be beard by a
person(Virgo, 2018). The elements that constitutes the criminal liability are criminal mind ie
mens rea, criminal act and intention to cause harm to any individual, society or organisation. The
damage that is caused to a individual, society or organisation due to the criminal behaviour of a
person constitutes criminal liability.
This situation of Bernice leaving the restaurant without paying the bill constitutes the offence of
theft. The criminal offence of theft can be proved by mischievous intention of the person in order
to dishonestly leave without paying the bill. If a person do not pay after ordering and leaves the
restaurant, then it is considered as stealing and under which a person can be legally liable. The
act of non payment is generally considered as a breach of contract between the restaurant and
diners. If a person enters a restaurant and orders food then he is liable under a contract. This is a
type of agreement between the restaurant and customer. This agreement under contractual
obligation obligates a person to make the payment after completing his meal at restaurant. A
restaurant is obligated to provide safe and healthy food to its customers with affordable services

and prices(Bokovnya, Khisamova and Begishev, 2019). A customer is obligated to make the
payment of such meals and services beard by him. The diners at a restaurant are obligated to pay
if they acquire or order something at it. If a person leaves without paying the bill at a restaurant
then it is considered as a way of acting dishonestly.
The condition of inability to pay also arises frequently when a customer forgets to make the
payment by forgetting his wallet at home. The technical issues in online payment with decline of
card payment also enables a customer to not pay the bill. In order to avoid such issues, a person
must always carry some cash and have some other modes of payment( (Casson, 2019). There
should be the procedure of half payment made before hand after the placement of order so that
less to less problem is caused between the customers and restaurant owners. There is also the
implication of other services taken like taking something of value from the customers. Some
restaurants compensate the bills from the customers by enforcing some of services of restaurants
in order to bear their loss. There is also the policy of taking whole information from the
customers which binds them to make the payment. In this situation if a customers leaves without
making the payment, then the restaurant owners can reach out to him by accessing his
information.
The refusal to pay amounts to theft which is a criminal offence. A person is guilty of constituting
theft if he has dishonestly used the property or belonging of another person with the intention to
deceive the other person or organisation. So, the non payment of charge which was to be beard
by Bernice adheres her to commit the offence of theft. If a person leaves a restaurant without
making any payment and has the intention to purposely conduct the mischievous act then he ha
done the act of fraud by fraudulently deceiving the authorities of restaurant. There is also a
situation where if a customer is not satisfied with the food then they refuse to make the payment.
Whenever the customers are not satisfied with the food then they refuse to make the payment
which creates conflicts between the customer and owner of restaurant.
According to the Consumers Rights Act 2015, if a customer is not satisfied with the food then
there can ask for compensation which can be in the form of reduction of price or the policy of
refund. The customers can also get the refund of the whole money paid if they are not satisfied
with the food or service of the restaurant. The customers are entitled to get safe and healthy food
which should be prioritised by the restaurant owners (Clibborn and Wright, 2018). The
authorities of restaurant should conduct or perform their services due care and diligence in order