LOS ANGELES, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- A Los Angeles man, called by media as the "dine-and-dash dater," faced 10 felony counts for allegedly going on dates with numerous women across the U.S. state of California before skipping out on the bill.
Local ABC news Channel Saturday reported that 45-year-old Paul Guadalupe Gonzales is accused of defrauding nearly 1,000 U.S. dollars from a string of women he met mostly through dating apps and online from May 2016 through April.
A dine-and-dash is regarded as a form of theft by fraud in the United States, in which a patron orders and consumes food and beverages from a restaurant or similar establishment with the intent not to pay.
In Gonzales' case, the report cited document of the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office reporting that he purportedly went to dinner with ten ladies he dated at restaurants in Los Angeles and nearby cities, where he ordered food and drinks then left before the waiter brought the check.
Eight victims wound up footing the entire bill themselves, while the restaurants picked up the check for two other women.
Gonzales is accused of seven counts of extortion, two counts of attempted extortion and one count of grand theft, which are all felonies, as well as two misdemeanour counts each of defrauding an innkeeper and petty theft.
His bail was set at 315,000 U.S. dollars, the report said, if convicted of all charges, he could spend up to 13 years behind bars in state prison.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 7 in the Los Angeles County Superior Court.
