Watch: customer puts their own hair into their food in attempt to get refund at Blackburn pub

A pub customer has been caught on CCTV placing their own hair into a meal to get a refund - with the pub owner stating that he was "disgusted" by the move.

Tom Croft, owner of The Observatory pub in Blackburn, made the revelation after he had already refunded the customer the £12.95 they had paid for the beef roast dinner meal they claimed had hair in it. When he looked at the CCTV after the incident to make sure that his staff were all wearing their hair tied back, he instead found evidence that the customer had placed the strands in the food themselves.

In the video, the female customer can be seen whispering to a man before she pulled strands of hair from her head. She can then be seen pulling the man's plate towards her and placing the hair on top of the food left on the plate.

Mr Croft said that the incident had left him "disgusted" with the customer. He said: "We reviewed the footage to see what had gone wrong, in case a member of staff didn't have their hair tied back or whatever, but then we found the clip. I was disgusted and angry - very angry.

"There are people out there that are willing to put a business's reputation and staff's jobs at risks for a £12.95 meal. The kitchen team could have then thought it was their fault, when they had done absolutely nothing wrong."

He said that the incident worried him that the Observatory would gain a negative reputation, adding: "We've not had anything happen like this before. If we hadn't found the CCTV footage, then our reputation would be a major concern and a big worry. People don't want to eat in places where you find hair in food. We have a five-star food hygiene rating and adhere to all the food safety guidelines.But if we hadn't found the CCTV footage, then it could have quite easily damaged our reputation."

After the worrying incident, the pub owner said that he wanted to "warn" other hospitality owners to keep an eye out for other customers pulling their own stunt. He said: "You need to keep your eyes out, not just for these two people but incidents of a similar nature. There are people out there who are willing to chance this with another business."