A Guest checked into a five-star hotel in Delhi for a single night and stayed for about two years before checking out without paying his bill, the Indian Express newspaper reported.

The guest, Mr. Ankush, Dutta, spent 603 nights at the Roseate House Hotel, near the IGI airport, in the national capital. He racked up a bill of over US$71,000 or INR 58 lakhs. And one day he casually walks out the front door in January 2021.

Hotel Fraud Reported after 2 Years

This massive bill only came to light only when the records were later audited. The hotel board called the police and filed a complaint against the guest, the front desk manager and the hotel staff arguing that it was a coherently planned fraud.

The complaint also stated that the hotel staff, “allegedly forged, deleted, added and falsified a large number of entries in the account of the said guest,” the Indian Express reported. The staff members are charged with altering several records in Dutta’s account in the hotel’s Opera software system by adding, deleting, and forging account entries.

FIR against The Roseate House staff

The management of the hotel believes that Prakash (front office staff) may have taken Dutta’s illegal cash payments in exchange for his manipulation of the hotel’s internal software system.

“A criminal conspiracy was hatched by guest Mr Ankush Dutta along with some known and unknown hotel staff, including Mr. Prem Prakash, with a motive to gain wrongfully and deprive the hotel of its rightful dues.”

FIR stated

The FIR also states that from May 30, 2019, to October 25, 2019, Prakash purposefully ignored to produce outstanding payment records. Prakash used a variety of strategies to allow Dutta’s extended stay, including tampering with accounts to indicate that other visitors had made payments on his behalf—a claim that was later revealed to be false.

On various dates, Ankush issued various cheques amounting to INR 10 Lakh, 7 Lakh and 20 Lakhs. All of those cheques somehow bounced. The CEO and Financial Controller must be notified if a guest’s unpaid balance is greater than 72 hours old. But, Mr. Prakash neglected to inform the authorities about the unpaid debts.

Roseate House claims that the offenders have engaged in a number of criminal offences, such as criminal breach of trust, fraud, forgery, and falsification of accounts, and demands harsh legal action against them.

Roseate House did not respond to a query sent by Bloomberg and the Indian Express outside normal business hours.

We will keep you updated on the developments.

Till then, keep reading with us.

SOURCE Bloomberg/The Indian Express