In a post on social media, the trade group said it had been contacted by an unnamed business that shared an encounter where three men ran up a large bill and later claimed they didn’t have cash or cards to settle the bill, instead asking if they could pay via bank transfer.

“One of the party showed the staff a text message allegedly from his bank, confirming that the funds had been transferred to the restaurant. He said that it could take an hour or more for the transfer to show in the recipient’s account, so the party would wait and have more drinks,” read the post from Hospitality Ulster.

“The restaurant owners grew suspicious and informed the party that they had contacted the PSNI, at which point they left the establishment. Police attended the restaurant and informed ownership that they were aware of this scam.

“Please remain vigilant to situations like this, or similar, where you are unable to confirm that payment has been made.”

The warning of the scam comes at a particularly difficult time for hospitality venues. In February, it was revealed a quarter of hospitality businesses have no cash reserves and a further 29% have less than three month’s worth, according to a survey covering the whole of the UK.

The joint survey by the British Beer and Pub Association, British Institute of Innkeeping, UKHospitality alongside Hospitality Ulster showed the overwhelming majority of businesses have seen costs rise across the board, and are struggling with additional pressures.

Despite Broker opening in October 2022, owner Peter McCloskey, who also owns Belfast’s Oliver’s chain, is now closing the restaurant saying it “has never been harder”.

“It’s too hard to get quality staff here in Northern Ireland,” he said. “If we had the staff here that they have in other countries the industry would be totally different.

Mr McCloskey feels the government can and should provide restaurants with greater support.

He said rate relief and reducing VAT to 13.5% from 20% (the rate for the hospitality and tourism sector in the Republic of Ireland) would help business owners.

“Restaurants in GB are paying discounted rates and down south the VAT is much more manageable, places here have such impossibly high expenses and then people can’t afford to eat out,” he said.

“The rates are just far too high here, you have to bring in an awful lot of money to make any money.

“We are heading to a place where the only restaurants that can afford the rates in Belfast are chain restaurants, and that’s not what we want, we want to see talented and creative chefs in the city, not just a lot of chain restaurants.”

Chef Chris Hayden plans to take over the unit where Broker resided.

“He is a very talented chef and he has a lot of ideas he wants to showcase, he is the head chef at a hotel at the minute but having your own restaurant means you can put your stamp on things and do it the way you want to,” Mr McCloskey said.

He added that Mr Hayden can offer customers in east Belfast a great menu and has a supportive staff around him.

“He is a good chef and he has good chefs who want to work under him, you need a good staff to offer customers food they are willing to pay for and he will have that,” Mr McCloskey said.

“We’re just a tiny, tiny business that’s trying our best,” he told Sunday Life. “We’re not even a restaurant as such, so to be up there with all those other restaurants, Ox — Michelin star; Muddlers Club — Michelin star; Noble, my favourite restaurant… it’s insane.”

The former advertising exec, who started the business as his wife was wife recovering from serious illness, added: “At that stage, I just thought why have any regrets, so I’m kind of wedded to this all now.

“I was lucky in that the jobs I did before this, I enjoyed them, I never once woke up and thought I can’t do this. But doing this, it’s different. It’s super-hard, it’s seven days a week, it’s extreme, baking the sourdough takes such a long time… but I love it.”