Man stays at Delhi 5-star hotel for 2 years without paying Rs 58 lakh, and he is not the first to do so

A luxury hotel in Delhi's Aerocity claimed to have incurred a loss of Rs 58 lakh when a guest, in collusion with hotel staff, managed to stay for nearly two years without making any payment.

Roseate House, a hotel in Aerocity near the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport in the national capital, filed a complaint at the IGI Airport police station regarding the same.

The FIR was filed by Vinod Malhotra, a representative of Bird Airports Hotel Private Limited, which operates Roseate. 

What

• The FIR states that a man named Ankush Dutta stayed at Roseate House for 603 days, and checked out without making any payment.
• This resulted in a loss of Rs 58 lakh for the hotel. 
• The FIR alleges that Prem Prakash, the head of the Front Office Department at the hotel, who had the authority to determine room rates and access to the hotel's computer system to monitor guest dues, allowed Dutta to stay for an extended period in violation of the hotel's policies.

Dutta arrived at the hotel on May 30, 2019, and initially reserved a room for one night.

• However, instead of checking out the following day; on May 31, he continuously extended his stay until January 22, 2021.
• According to the hotel policy, if a guest's unpaid charges remain unresolved for more than 72 hours, it should be reported to the CEO and Financial Controller for their awareness and further instructions... which was not reported by Prakash.

Prakash neglected to generate any report of outstanding payments between May 30, 2019, and October 25, 2019.

When he finally created the outstanding payment report after October 25, he intentionally manipulated it by combining unpaid bills of other unrelated guests into a single invoice, aiming to conceal Dutta's pending dues.

However, this is not the first time this has happened. Delhi itself has seen three similar incidents incidents in the recent past.

Take a look.

1. Fraudster dupes Delhi 5-star, pretending to be UAE royal

A man named Mohammed Sharif (41) was arrested by the Delhi Police on January 19 this year in Dakshina Kannada, Karnataka, for posing as an employee of the Abu Dhabi royal family.

• Sharif had successfully deceived the staff at the Leela Palace Hotel in Delhi, where he stayed for over four months, resulting in a loss of Rs 23 lakh for the hotel. 
• Sharif also stole valuable silverware and a mother-of-pearl tray from his hotel room. 

Claiming personal association with the Sheikh and being on official business in India, the man confidently presented a range of documents including a business card, a UAE resident card, and others to support his narrative.

• He also had regular conversations with the hotel staff on his life in the UAE to avoid suspicion.
• During his four-month stay, the total bill for the room and services amounted to Rs 35 lakh.
• Although he initially paid Rs 11.5 lakh, he left without settling the remaining balance.
• He had handed over a cheque of Rs 20 lakh, which was dated November 20, 2022, coinciding with the day he abruptly left the hotel premises.
• The cheque bounced, resulting in the hotel to raise an alarm.

2. Man cheats Delhi 5-star 

A 29-year-old man was arrested for staying at ITC Maurya in Delhi but refusing to pay. The man checked into the hotel along with his family on May 28 this year.

• However, he declined to settle the bill, which amounted to a substantial sum.
• The man was then apprehended and charged with cheating.
• As per the police statement provided by Anand Bhardwaj, the assistant manager of ITC Maurya; the accused, who resides in Ghaziabad, reserved two rooms at the hotel on May 28.
• It was agreed upon that he would settle the outstanding amount by May 31.
• But, when the payment deadline arrived, the individual violated the credit policy.

According to Bhardwaj, the hotel staff approached the guest for payment, but initially he evaded them.

• He then showed unique transaction reference (UTR) numbers to the hotel staff as proof of payment.
• These transactions were later discovered to be fraudulent.
• The man, meanwhile, continued to eat and drink from the minibar, assuring the hotel staff that he would make the payment by June 3. 

The hotel accosted the man when he did not make the payment on June 3, but he verbally abused the staff and also broke a glass table.

3. Father and son arrested for dodging Rs 2 lakh bill

Kamaljit Singh and Navdeep Singh, a father and son duo from Punjab, had a pattern of staying at high-end hotels and fleeing without paying the bill. Till they were caught in the act.

• On August 11, 2021, Navdeep checked in to the Aloft Hotel in Aerocity, Delhi.
• Soon after, his parents Kamaljit Singh and Kuldeep Kaur, also checked in to the hotel and began staying in the same room.
• The family enjoyed all the hotel facilities during their stay, and racked up a total bill of Rs 3,41,054.
• Out of the whole amount, they only paid Rs 60,000. 
• On September 4, Kamaljit Singh and Kuldeep Kaur simply checked out of the hotel without settling their outstanding dues.
• The following day, September 5, Navdeep Singh left the hotel on the pretense of returning within two hours, but went missing. 
• At this point, the family owed the hotel an unpaid balance of Rs 2,81,054.
• The hotel filed a complaint with the IGI Airport police station.

• The police began investigating the case.
• Three months after the Aloft incident, on January 19, 2022, the police received a tip-off that Navdeep Singh and his father, Kamaljit Singh, were residing at the Parikshit Hotel in Mahipalpur, Delhi.

Following up on this information, the police carried out a raid at the Mahipalpur hotel, and arrested the father-son duo.