Revealed: Serial dine-and-dash solicitor was struck off for ordering £43 Just Eat takeaway and shutting door on the delivery driver without paying

A serial dine-and-dash solicitor has been struck off after ordering a £43 takeaway and shutting the door on the delivery driver.

Kerry Ann Stevens claimed she had already paid online for the Just Eat order from a kebab shop but this was a lie and the innocent driver had the cost deducted from his wages, a professional tribunal heard. 

Ms Stevens was found guilty of two counts of fraud at a magistrates court and has now been thrown out of the profession after the tribunal found her guilty of misconduct for her 'premeditated and deliberate' acts. 

Due to her profession, she would have been in 'no doubt whatsoever' that she was committing a crime, the panel found.

The hearing of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal was told that in January 2021, Ms Stevens ordered £43.47 worth of food from a kebab shop via the Just Eat app.

A driver arrived at her home address just after 8 pm to deliver the food and asked Ms Stevens for payment.

But, the Essex-based solicitor insisted she had already paid when she placed the order and as the driver rang the restaurant to confirm - she shut the door in his face.

The Essex Grill kebab shop said Ms Stevens had not paid for the food. The delivery driver knocked on her door for several minutes but she did not answer and the bill was subsequently deducted from the driver's salary.

The solicitor - who qualified in February 2016 - told the police she believed her boyfriend had paid when placing the order online.

The panel heard the year before, Ms Stevens and her boyfriend ordered £60.91 worth of food at a Harvester restaurant in Rayleigh, Essex.

After they had finished eating, Ms Stevens' boyfriend left the restaurant and she told a member of staff that she was unable to pay for the food as her partner had taken her bank card.

The solicitor said she would return to settle the bill and provided both her telephone number and her passport to staff.

Later that same evening, the restaurant's duty manager called Ms Stevens and confirmed that payment could be taken over the phone but the solicitor said she had no other cards to pay with and agreed to come back in the morning to pay the bill.

But, the following day the manager tried to call Ms Stevens on the phone number provided and the call failed to connect.

Months later, she contacted the Harvester's care team via email and said she would need to collect her passport.

The manager contacted her again using a second telephone number which was later provided and said she would need to pay the bill and retrieve the passport.

The restaurant then reported her to the police.

In March 2022, Ms Stevens attended South Essex Magistrates Court where she was found guilty of two counts of fraud and ordered to pay a total of £1,943 in costs and compensation.

In another case, Ms Stevens and her partner, Daniel Alani, were confronted by members of the public in a pub after allegedly refusing to pay for their Sunday lunch. 

CCTV footage obtained by MailOnline showed the couple being prevented from fleeing the Castle Inn in Little Wakering by staff and fellow customers without settling their £62 bill.

Not just contempt with not paying for meals, taxi drivers have also claimed to have had interaction with the couple. One alleges that Ms Stevens screamed at him when he refused to accept a phone charger as payment instead of cash. 

While another taxi driver filmed Mr Alani claiming he had refused to hand over the money for his journey 

The professional tribunal struck her off as they found her convictions amounted to professional misconduct.

The panel said: 'In assessing culpability, the Tribunal found that the motivation was personal financial gain.

'The offences were premeditated and deliberate.

'Ms Stevens had complete culpability for these matters, as reflected in her convictions. In assessing the harm caused, there was obvious harm caused to the profession by a solicitor committing criminal offences, particularly when it was for financial gain.

'In this case, there had been loss caused to the Harvester restaurant and to the delivery driver from the Essex Grill who effectively had to pay for Ms Stevens' meal.'

The panel said there was an 'element of attempted concealment' from Ms Stevens as she shut the door on the delivery driver and evaded the attempts made by the Harvester to pay off her debt.

They added: 'The Tribunal further noted that Ms Stevens' area of practise was criminal law.

'Ms Stevens would have therefore been in no doubt whatsoever that she was committing criminal offences on each occasion.'

She was also ordered to pay costs of £4,489.