THREE homeless men fled a pizza restaurant without paying after ordering more than £100 worth of food.

Billy Hetherington, aged 21, of Franchise Street, Kidderminster, was involved in the 'dine and dash' with his 22-year-old brother Rhys Hetherington and a third man, Charlie Wellings, aged 20, at Zizzi in Shrewsbury town centre on May 27 last year.

The trio were said to be homeless and sleeping rough at the time.

They appeared at Telford Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, August 8, where they all admitted making off the restaurant without paying the £114 bill.

Ms Katie Price, prosecuting, said that staff had said the trio had appeared "cocky" and were messy in appearance and one was carrying a sleeping bag.

She said the three men ate for over an hour and a half but when the bill was sent to their table they ran out of the restaurant, over the road and down an alleyway.

Ms Clare Stephens, for the three defendants, said her clients had been homeless and destitute at the time of the offence.

"They had no food they had nowhere to sleep," she said.

She said that all three had since tried to turn their lives around. The Hetherington brothers both had jobs in warehouses and Wellings had returned to his family home in Yorkshire.

But chairman of the bench Nigel Atkinson criticised their "immature" behaviour in court, saying: "The way you have behaved is a disgrace. You have made things worse for yourselves by acting as thoroughly immature men."

The three defendants had joked with a man in the public gallery while they waited to be sentenced and laughed throughout the hearing.

Billy Hetherington was fined £107 and ordered to pay £185 in court costs plus £28 in compensation for the meal.

Rhys, from Shrewsbury, was fined £184 and Wellings, from North Yorkshire, was fined £80, on top of court costs and compensation.