"Drinking 1.2 Million Won Worth in 7 Hours..." Fare Evasion Hurting Small Business Owners, What Are the Penalties?

Fines Under 100,000 Won, Detention or Administrative Fine... If Intentional or Habitual, Imprisonment Up to 10 Years or Fine Up to 20 Million Won
Fare Evasion Reports Exceed 100,000 Cases Annually on Average Over the Past 5 Years

The photo is not related to the specific content of the article. Photo by Yonhap News.

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyun-joo] As the number of self-employed business owners suffering from dine-and-dash incidents increases, one business owner has revealed the image of a man in his 50s who fled without paying about 1.2 million won for alcohol and expressed his intention to file a complaint.

A, who stated that he runs a bar in Iksan-gun, Jeonbuk, posted on an online community on the 23rd, revealing the image of B, a man who consumed 1.2 million won worth of alcohol and disappeared. According to A, B visited the store on the 12th and stayed for about seven hours. Later, when B tried to pay via bank transfer, he said, "My phone can't make the transfer, so I will go to a convenience store to transfer and come back," then went outside. About 20 minutes later, he left a message saying, "There was an error with the card. I will deposit soon," but did not return to the store.

A sent a message to B the next day, but after receiving a reply saying, "I will come even if late, so please wait," contact was lost again. Eventually, when A went to the police to verify B's identity, it was found that the name and age B left at the store were all false.

Recently, the number of self-employed business owners suffering from such dine-and-dash cases has been increasing. On the 4th, a post complaining about dine-and-dash damage was also uploaded on an online community. C, who runs a gopchang restaurant in Namyangju-si, Gyeonggi Province, lamented that three men estimated to be in their 60s ordered a total of 86,000 won worth of food, ate it, and left without paying.

Dine-and-dash is an act of not paying the rightful price without a legitimate reason and can be punished by a fine, detention, or penalty of up to 100,000 won. If intentionality and habituality are recognized, it can be charged as fraud, punishable by imprisonment of up to 10 years or a fine of up to 20 million won.

Meanwhile, the number of dine-and-dash reports over the past five years has averaged more than 107,000 cases per year. According to police statistics, there were ▲104,854 cases in 2016 ▲102,845 cases in 2017 ▲108,537 cases in 2018 ▲116,496 cases in 2019 ▲105,546 cases in 2020.