Australian tourist reimbursed AUD$39,000 illegally charged by Saigon restaurant

By VnExpress   December 6, 2016 | 07:47 pm PT
Australian tourist reimbursed AUD$39,000 illegally charged by Saigon restaurant
The restaurant in Saigon downtown where Caracciolo David John was charged AUD$39,429 to his credit card for a single dinner in August 2016. Photo courtesy of Bao Giao thong news site
In return he has withdrawn a fraud lawsuit he had filed against the company.

An Australian man who accused a restaurant in downtown Ho Chi Minh City of illegally charging AUD$39,429 to his credit card for a single dinner in August has been reimbursed by the owners.

Following negotiations with Tran Tuan Minh, 21, a representative of the Nightfall restaurant in District 1, David John Caracciolo has been paid back all the money he was illegally charged, lawyer Truong Xuan Tam, who acted on Caracciolo's behalf, told local media on Tuesday.

In return, the Australian man has sent a written request to Vietnamese authorities to drop the complaint he had lodged against the restaurant, Tam said.

On August 11, a waiter at the restaurant on Thai Van Lung Street in District 1, allegedly got Caracciolo to swipe and enter the PIN numbers on two of his credit cards, according to a complaint filed by Le Kim Yen on Caracciolo's behalf. The waiter in question claimed the credit card machine was experiencing "technical errors".

Yen claimed the restaurant did not present Caracciolo with a receipt detailing the charges to his accounts at the ANZ and Macquarie banks.

Caracciolo didn't check the transaction until he returned to Australia and received his bank statement, which said his cards were swiped eight times for a total of AUD$39,429, equivalent to VND683 million, Yen alleged in the complaint.

She further claimed the charges represented a deliberate effort to defraud Caracciolo, who never signed his receipts.

The restaurant has since closed but the HCMC Tax Department's website says the Nightfall Restaurant Limited Company remains in operation.

According to public records, the business moved to Nguyen Sieu Street on May 12. VnExpress found that premises likewise shuttered without any signage displayed above the door.

When VnExpress called the company's registered phone number, a woman answered and claimed to have no involvement in a company called Nightfall.

Related news:

Saigon restaurant accused of charging Australian $39,000 for dinner

 
 
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