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Sydney - An Australian cricket journalist in Britain for the Ashes series claims to have drunk “the most expensive beer in history” after being charged nearly A$100 000 (over R1 million) for the tipple.
According to the BBC website, Peter Lalor, chief cricket writer for the Australian newspaper, said he stopped for a drink at a bar in Manchester ahead of the fourth Ashes Test at Old Trafford.
Relaying the tale on his Twitter account, Lalor said he was not wearing his glasses, so he did not check the bill for the bottle of Deuchars IPA he ordered before handing over his bank card.
The rude shock came a few hours later when Lalor’s wife, at home in Australia, alerted him to the fact that A$99 983.64 had been stripped from their joint account. Adding to the pain, he’d been slugged another A$2 500 as a transaction fee.
Some sleuthing revealed that instead of entering £5.50 (R99.90), bar staff charged him £55 000 for a single beer.
The operator of the bar, the Malmaison Hotel, was not immediately available for comment.
Lalor said the funds were drained from his mortgage offset account and he was surprised not have received any notification from his bank, which he did not name.
The transaction fee has already been refunded, but Lalor will have a “massive hole” in his finances for the nine working days it will take the larger amount to be returned.
"Australians find England pretty expensive usually, but this takes the cake," he said.
"That's a lot of money. I'm just a cricket writer, I don't earn big bucks and it's costing me in interest."
As for the beer itself, Lalor said that at least was a success.
"It's a good beer," he later tweeted.
"The original version of it won a heap of awards, including the Supreme Champion Beer of Britain, but if you are thinking that no beer is worth the best part of A$100 000, then I am inclined to agree with you."
See this beer? That is the most expensive beer in history.
— Peter Lalor (@plalor) September 5, 2019
I paid $99,983.64 for it in the Malmaison Hotel, Manchester the other night.
Seriously.
Contd. pic.twitter.com/Q54SoBB7wu
