Vernon judge unimpressed with prolific dine-and-dasher

CONTENT ADVISORY

On a sunny afternoon last June, Vernon resident Travis Kroeker headed into the Kalamalka Hotel and ordered some chicken wings.

He washed his three portions of chicken wings down with a couple of Smirnoff Ice coolers before heading outside to check on his dog.

However, he never returned.

Later that day, he met up with William Phillips and the two headed to the patio at Brown’s Socialhouse and ordered a martini and a glass of Sauvignon Blanc.

The bartender thought he recognized Kroeker from a photo the bar had of a dine-and-dasher. Realizing it was the same person, he headed over and asked the pair to pay their bill.

Kroeker got his phone out and tapped it on the debit machine. He hadn’t opened an app to pay, so the move was clearly redundant.

However, he kept tapping as the bartender requested payment.

With no luck getting any money out of the pair, the manager asked them to leave and called RCMP.

On Feb. 4, Kroeker appeared in a Vernon courtroom dressed in red prison garb, having been arrested and charged for a spate of dine-and-dash incidents around Vernon. Court records show he dined and dashed three days in a row in February 2025, and bolted without paying in August. He skipped out of a bill at Original Joes the day before to hit up The Kal and Browns.

Last November, he was convicted for a single dine and dash incident, along with assault, and released on a sentence of time served.

This time around, the pair’s bill at Brown’s was just shy of $70.

“They just said they would pay. And then I asked, and they just kept not paying,” the bartender told the court.

Kroeker, who’s in his early 40s, offered no solid defence for skipping out on paying the bill.

“I didn’t refuse to pay. I said I wasn’t ready to pay quite yet,” Kroeker told the court.

While Kroeker had a court-appointed lawyer to represent him at no charge, he dismissed his lawyer at the beginning of the trial.

He pleaded not guilty to all charges and made pointless gripes throughout the process.

His behaviour didn’t impress Judge Jeremy Guild as he moaned about everything from the position of the microphone to not getting a coffee at the court’s morning break.

“I’m curious, are you guys getting paid for this morning break?” He asked the judge. “I’m representing myself, and I’m not getting paid to be here… I’m not getting coffee. I’m not getting anything.”

His complaints continued.

“All we’re doing is really dog fucking, so what are you really here for?” he asked the judge, before saying it was a “shitty system.”

His cross-examination left much to be desired. At one point, he asked a witness whether they believed in magic.

By the end of the day, the Judge had found him in contempt of court and guilty of two charges of dine and dashing. An assault charge was stayed because the victim didn’t show up to court.

He remains behind bars, with multiple other charges for dine and dashing working their way through the court system. He will be sentenced at a later date.

Phillips was found guilty of skipping out on the Brown’s bill and released after serving time awaiting trial.