A diner has admitted doing a runner from a Bideford curry house without paying the £68 bill.
Loui Guinan changed his plea as the jury were being ushered into the courtroom at Exeter Crown Court and admitted the offence which he has denied for the past 18 months.
He was cleared of three similar offences at other restaurants and hotels in North Devon and his sentence was adjourned.
Guinan changed his plea after studying a still from CCTV at the Sagor Tandoori which showed him with a group of young men who left without paying.
He had denied the offence just moments earlier and only changed his mind when the jury were about to be ushered into the court and sworn in.
Judge Phillip Wassall said:"The case was sustainable and supported by the evidence. It was difficult to see what the defence was going to be."
Guinan, aged 23, of Tower Street, Bideford, admitted attempting to make off without payment at the Sagor in February last year.
He denied making off without payment at the Durrant House Hotel, the Riverside Hotel, the Paramount Chinese restaurant and was found not guilty.
Mr James Taghdissian, prosecuting, said the pleas were accepted because witnesses from two of the establishments were no longer available or were unwilling to come to court.
He said the CCTV from the Durrant House Hotel had been mislaid at an earlier hearing when one of the men was prosecuted at magistrates court.
Mr Brian Fitzherbert, defending, asked the judge to delay sentence until next month at the earliest
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