Deliveroo Customers Sold Ready Meals Cooked in Nine Elms Flat
YouTuber says he was exposing inadequate checking by online platform
For just a few days recently there was a new restaurant apparently operating in the Nine Elms area. Customers of Deliveroo placed orders with the 'Italian Stallion' which gave its location as New Union Square. In fact their food had been hurriedly bought at a nearby Waitrose store and then heated up in a flat in the development.
The fake restaurant was set up by South African YouTuber, Josh Pieters, who says he was trying to demonstrate how lax Deliveroo were in checking who they allowed to sell food on their platform.
'Italian Stallion' obviously had no hygiene rating and was operating from a web site set up just a few days before it started operating. Despite this it received over £100 worth of orders. As soon as being notified of the client request, friends of Josh would dash down to the store in the development and bring the items back up to be heated and repackaged in time to give to the delivery driver. They even wore chefs outfits while in action.
Despite have an improbable name and using a picture of reality star Gemma Collins from a TV cookery programme as their head chef on their web site as well as some nonsense descriptions of the items on the menu, Deliveroo did not notice the deception.
The fake restaurant was registered with Wandsworth Council which meant that they could claim that their outlet was pending an inspection. That was all that was need to get on the delivery platform and be given the equipment needed to accept orders.
When Italian Stallion did get a delivery, cash to the value of the order was included with the food as well as a note explaining what was happening.
A Deliveroo spokesperson said, 'Deliveroo works with 20,000 restaurants across the UK, bringing people amazing food on demand.
'Deliveroo is looking at ways to strengthen our processes for ensuring customers receive food from outlets with the highest standards.'
We have contacted Wandsworth Council for a comment and await a response.
September 11, 2019