To be so upset people think we left without paying?

It wouldn't be hard for the pub to at least put as a first sentence "People in the birthday party were not involved"
and carry on

Comment and make reviews, as a customer that would put me right off the pub if they can't be bothered to make it clear it had nothing to do with you! Especially a large party spending a lot - how are they going to treat me when I come as a couple?

Can't you report it to FB, with a copy of the receipt and explain that you have not given them permission to use a photo of you on the pubs FB page and they should have, at the very least, blurred you out as you have nothing to do with the incident being reported and you are getting a lot of abuse over it?

People online have real difficulty with their reading comprehension these days, as evidenced further by these replies.

I'm not sure what you can do op other than direct anyone and everyone to the post where the pub says you weren't involved. They haven't committed a crime so i'm not sure what people think the police will do and nor is it libel as they haven't falsely accused you.

I am work in data protection law, happy to help you out if you need me to write something

Surely libel doesn't apply as the pub HAVE stated that they weren't the ones to not pay?

Hey OP, I would be so disappointed - surely they can blur you all out.
Escalate it further if they don't respond to you with an appropriate solution

Technically they weren't accused of anything so I don't think it's libel.

However, people have jumped to the conclusion based on a Facebook post.

Just as anyone can see something and jump to an incorrect conclusion

You need to contact all of your friends and get them to react to your receipt photo (shocked face, angry face, crying face etc not just like it). This will put your comment higher up.

A pub has been forced to pay £75,000 to a family that were falsely accused of not paying for a meal.

A Facebook post from the Horse and Jockey in Tideswell, Derbyshire, condemned the behaviour of Peter and Ann McGirr, who had been dining at the pub with their two adult children.

I would be bloody fuming OP. Great advice on her as to what to do! Let us know how you get on!

Tell them you are considering going to the local paper with you sad face story.

I would copy the photo, blur your family out and ring the non/paying couple and be posting it on FB in every local group, friends and family pages and asking people to share it.

🤬🤬🤬🤬

Take pictures of the post, send them a solicitors letter, you won't be the first person to be falsely accused.
They'd be in court for defamation.

Get a screenshot of her original post stating that you, at the table, are not involved, just in case it creates a problem at work . . .

Keep evidence of every call or message you receive from acquaintances asking why you didn’t pay and screen shot every comment on that post, especially the comment linking your business page. You need evidence of the damage to your reputation so screenshot all of it.

Speak to a solicitor and see if you can sue. What they’ve done is no joke. Yes, they did say it wasn’t your family but hidden away in a walk of text so that’s not what people are seeing. They’re just seeing your photo and the headline that you dined and dashed.

Awful. take screen shots which show the time the post was made and all your correspondence.

at the very least they should make clear that they are looking for the ‘man in the blue shirt and the lady in the pink dress only and the other people in the image were paying customers.’ You’ve made reasonable requests and now they’ve left you own to abuse and have implicated you libellously. What was a misunderstanding has been blown up by their behaviour.

That’s technically a libel. Letter before action.

Yes we get the irony but calling us all thick doesn't actually help the OP in any way... Hope it made you feel good though.

Nope Yanbu, that’s legal action all the way now against the pub. They’re now intentionally causing you and your family distress as you’ve pointed it out to them. Sue, sue and sue!

I’d post a picture of the receipt and say you will be seeking legal advice if the photo is not edited/removed.

@CarefullyCuratedFurnitureyep. Thick as mince. Totally lacking in reading comprehension

If you let us know which page it is, we could flood the comments pointing out that it isn't the people at the table who are involved.

That’s horrible of them. I get that they didn’t intend to cause a problem for you, but they clearly have and they just don’t care. I would look into what you can do legally. You shouldn’t have to deal with this, but they’ve very publicly made out that you are a thief, they need to very publicly apologise. I can understand them having made the mistake in the first place, they’re pretty useless to not have blurred you out, but some people are pretty useless. How are they not now mortified at what they’ve done to you?!

I would call the police and ask their advice and I’d then screenshot everything and every comment and seek legal advice

i would also go back to the pub / restaurant and refuse to leave until the photo was removed and a further post put up by them clarifying that your party were not in any way involved and apologising for any confusion they have caused by posting you r images

your post here clearly shows how people do not read properly .

in short - I would not stop until they sorted this.

The owner has NOT accused them of theft.

In fact, the owner said it was not them.

But that fact was hidden in the Facebook post

Did a family not recently have success when suing a restaurant for something similar. I think it was perhaps in Northern Ireland?

id make them aware of this and tell them you’ll have no hesitation instructing a lawyer.