Police hunt Saigon restaurant owner who allegedly charged Australian $30,000 for dinner

By VnExpress   October 25, 2016 | 10:41 pm PT
Police hunt Saigon restaurant owner who allegedly charged Australian $30,000 for dinner
Tran Thi Hong Phuong is said to be the restaurant owner who allegedly charged an Australian tourist $39,000 for a single dinner. Photo released by the police
The restaurant had disappeared before the Australian man could make a complaint.

The search is on for a restaurant owner in Ho Chi Minh City who is accused of charging an Australian man $30,000 for a meal, according to an official statement released by police on Tuesday.

Police are searching for 37-year-old Tran Thi Hong Phuong, the owner of downtown restaurant Nightfall on Thai Van Lung Street, District 1, who is accused of credit card fraud.

Australian tourist John David Caracciolo earlier this month claimed the restaurant had charged AUD$39,429 to his credit card for dinner.

On August 11, a waiter at the restaurant allegedly had John David Caracciolo swipe and enter the PIN numbers on two of his credit cards several times due to “technical errors”, according to a complaint filed by Le Kim Yen on Caracciolo's behalf.

She also accused the restaurant of having failed to present Caracciolo with a receipt detailing the charges to his bank accounts.

One month after the incident, Caracciolo, who claimed the credit card charges represented a deliberate effort to defraud him, returned to Vietnam to file a complaint, only to find that the restaurant has already closed.

Local police have confirmed that although Tran Tuan Minh, Phuong’s 21-year-old brother, was legally registered as the business owner, he was not involved in the alleged fraud.

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