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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Lizzie McAllister & Graeme Murray

Man accidentally spends £55,000 on 'most expensive beer in history'

A man accidentally spent £55,000 on "most expensive beer in history".

Peter Lalor was astonished to learn the price of a pint was slightly more than he thought at the Manchester venue.

The Australian ordered an ale in his quest for a "very English" drink but his bill was 10,000 times more than he budgeted for.

He had gone to the Malmaison Hotel in Manchester where he bought a Deuchars IPA as a nightcap.

The Daily Star reported when his bill arrived he paid without noticing the cost of a single beer.

But he soon discovered the bartender had spotted a mistake leading to a fit of the giggles at the blunder.

Peter Lalor, chief cricket writer for The Australian, was accidentally charged £55,000 for a single beer (PA)
A pint of IPA turned out to be an expensive quaff for Peter (PA)

The visitor then had a call on his phone saying he had been charged $99,983.64 Australian dollars for the beer or an astonishing £55,000.

He was also left with an additional a service charge of £1,382 which could have paid for 251 more IPAs at the establishment.

Peter, who writes about beer and cricket for The Australian had a laugh about his bill on Twitter.

He wrote: "See this beer? That is the most expensive beer in history.

"I paid $99,983.64 for it in the Malmaison Hotel, Manchester the other night. Seriously.

He added: "It's a good beer. The original version of it won a heap of awards, including the Supreme Champion Beer of Britain, but if you are thinking that no beer is worth the best part of $100,000, then I am inclined to agree with you."

He shared the saga with his 50,000+ Twitter followers and explained how how mistake happened.

"I didn't have my reading glasses when she presented me with a bill for the beer and when she had some problems with the machine I didn't think much of it, but it was eventually resolved, I said I didn't want a receipt and she went to leave.

"Something, however, made me ask: 'How much did I just pay for that beer'.

"She checked, covered her mouth, started to giggle and refused to tell me, saying only there had been a mistake and she would fix it. I insisted.

"She kept giggling, I told her it needed to be fixed and fixed right now."

A manager arrived and dealt with the mistake, but the customer still had to wait days for his refund after the incident in 2019.

He added: "She told me somebody would be in contact. Three days later I'm still waiting."

The service charge, Pete said, was quickly refunded, but repayment for the hugely expensive beer took longer to arrive.

He added: "It really is baffling that both Visa and our bank would allow such an amount to go through unquestioned.

The bill was quite a bit higher than the Aussie visitor imagined (Mail News Media Ltd)

"And, guess what? They agree that there is a refund in the system but it will take nine working days for it to go through.

"In the meantime there's a massive hole in my finances.

"Lesson to be learned: always find your glasses when presented with a bill."

Peter has since spoken to the Malmaison and they were "very helpful" in putting through his refund.

At the time a Malmaison spokesperson told the Daily Star : "We always benchmark our bar prices, and acknowledge this was a tad on the steep side.

"We have been in touch with Peter to apologise and ensure this is fully resolved.

"We hope we can invite Peter back for another drink soon. The next one is definitely on the house!"

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