A small restaurant group has been blackmailed by criminals, promising to post fake negative reviews of their restaurants unless they are paid thousands of pounds.
Chef Andrew Sheridan and business partner Sam Morgan run a well respected group of fine dining restaurants in the North West and the West Midlands, which includes the likes of Restaurant 8 in Liverpool, Restaurant OXA in Wirral, The Bracebridge in Birmingham, and Black and Green in Worcestershire.
The criminals originally targeted the restaurants through the group’s WhatsApp booking line, demanding £2,000 to not share fake, one star reviews.
‘The weapon is fear,’ said Morgan, speaking to the BBC. ‘Ultimately we are a small independent business - yes we have got six or seven restaurants but actually underneath it all we are just two lads trying hard to make a living, we are not a multi-million organisation, we don't have the resources that tackle these things.’
After Sheridan and Morgan ignored the messages, the criminals posted a negative review, which prompted Morgan to contact the criminals and find out more about them. A few days after they stopped messaging, more negative reviews were posted on TripAdvisor and Google, with the cash demand rising to £2,500.
One such review was left on Restaurant 8’s TripAdvisor page, reading: ‘Wine list was very poor and very overpriced. Our chef Jake was fantastic but the lack of drinks choice and excessive price really lets this venue down, how can anyone warrant £90 for prosecco?’ Morgan says that Restaurant 8 doesn’t serve prosecco, and they have never employed a chef called Jake.
Many of the fake reviews have since been removed, but Morgan believes that this is a growing problem for restaurant owners around the country. ‘I think this happens more, we are not just isolated,’ he says. ‘Unless we speak up about it, other people will bury their heads in the sand, their businesses are going to get destroyed.’
Sheridan, who oversees the food at all the restaurants, said: ‘There will be some people who will pay out of fear.
‘We have got a lot going on, the stress levels are already high, on top of it we have got some plonker trying it out, you take it personally.’
In other restaurant news, read about the squatters that moved into San Lorenzo - famously the favourite restaurant of Princess Diana.