A DARLINGTON restauranteur was left ‘gobsmacked’ after a customer threatened to leave a bad review because their takeaway was 30-minutes late due to a two-hour police stand-off.

Akbar the Great on Darlington’s Bondgate was caught within a police cordon on Saturday night as armed police were sent to a report of a knife-wielding man in the street.

The incident, which lasted around two hours, meant that part of the road was under a tight police cordon with nobody allowed to enter or leave the area until the suspect was caught.

Despite this, a disgruntled Akbar the Great takeaway customer threatened to leave a review saying ‘everything was bad’ with their food delivery as it was 30-minutes late due to the incident.

The Northern Echo:

Police at the scene of the incident on Saturday night

The takeaway’s management politely replied to the complainant explaining the police action meant the late delivery was beyond their control, but the customer insisted that they should be ‘compensated’ for the delay.

The customer acknowledged that the food was ‘great’ and hot when it arrived but said they would leave a negative review on social media if they weren’t compensated for the 30-minute delay.

Speaking to The Northern Echo, the takeaway’s owner Abu Raihan said: “I didn’t know what to think, to be honest, I was gobsmacked.

“But it is that type of world now, some people will try anything to get something - you can’t do anything about it.

“But I didn’t want to ruin my night any further by getting angry at them.”

The Northern Echo:

The complaint left restuarant owner Abu Raihan 'gobsmacked'

Mr Raihan described how customers had to be held in the restaurant on Saturday night until the police dealt with the situation outside, but staff did their best to honour takeaway orders as quickly as possible given the circumstances.

He said: “We pride ourselves on our delivery service, we are not known for being late, but the situation was out of our hands.

“They would not let anyone out or in, we even had people inside but they would not let them out when they’d finished so we were just watching the whole thing through the window.

“You just can’t plan for anything like this, hopefully we never see a situation like this again.”

During Saturday night’s incident, which started at around 6.30pm, Davide Sardu, of Bondgate, Darlington, was arrested.

The 42-year-old appeared at Newton Aycliffe Magistrates’ Court yesterday, where he pleaded guilty to possessing a knife in a public place and resisting a police officer.

Magistrates asked probation services to carry out a pre-sentencing report and Sardu was bailed to appear back before the court on July 31 to be sentenced.

 

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