Restaurants in upmarket town paid over £3,000

On five occasions, the bill on Joe McCarthy’s publicly-funded credit card topped £300 at different eateries in Yarm, which is now formally part of Cleveland.

Bills of £364, £380.80, £322.90 and £384 were settled at Italian restaurant Santoro on the High Street, with £375.10 being paid on another occasion to nearby Chadwicks, which was considered one of the best restaurants in the area.

In all, £1239.45 was paid – over six separate bills – to Chadwicks, which has since closed. The credit card was subsequently used to pay a bill of £115.35 at Chadwicks’s successor, Everly’s, which opened on the same site.

Just over £190 was paid over three visits to Raj Bari’s Indian restaurant and takeaway, also on Yarm High Street. Restaurants in two other old North Riding towns, Guisborough and Saltburn, also proved popular. Peter and Colin’s Chinese restaurant in Guisborough received just under £700 over four visits, with a highest bill of £233.30, while Alessi’s Italian eaterie in Saltburn received £465 over three visits.

But the highest individual bill – £518.01 – was paid on a visit to London at the Big Easy American diner. The same restaurant received other payments of £368.32 and £247.95.

Bills totalling more than £300 were paid for three trips to Reubens kosher restaurant in the capital, with a further £172.70 paid for a single visit to Kazan, a Turkish restaurant also in London.

The credit card also crossed the border to settle bills of £314.15 at the Ubiquitous Chip in Glasgow, £130.17 at Le Monde in Cardiff and £87.10 at the Four Winds in Belfast.

Closer to home, eateries in Leeds benefited, with almost £900 in total spent on trips to the Bar and Grill, twice, Chaophraya, twice, Dinos, again twice, and Bibis.

Mr McCarthy’s credit card was also used to pay for several trips to pubs, though it is not known if this was only for drinks or for meals and the payments were smaller.

The Old Bank of England in London was a particular favourite, with £263.70 paid over five separate visits. The Phoenix and the White Horse and Bower were also frequented in the capital.

The Piercefield pub in Chepstow, near the racecourse, was visited twice as was the Rudds Arms at Marton-in-Cleveland.

The Black Bull in Yarm, the Riverside Farm in York and Yates’ in Leeds also received credit card payments on single occasions.

It is not known who was present at the various venues.

A Cleveland Police Authority spokesman said policies governing expenses, including the provision of hospitality and meals, have been recently rewritten.

He said: “The revised policies expressly forbid reclaiming expenditure on alcohol for instance and clearly set out the expected process for dealing with hospitality.”