A mother who did a runner after taking her young child out to dinner was told the pizza they ate could have turned out to be the most expensive for her ever.

Judge Philip Statman said he could have imposed a fine of up to £500 on Marie Friend for the offence of making off without paying.

After hearing the 35-year-old was living off benefits and in a women’s refuge he imposed a conditional discharge for two years.

But he ordered Friend to pay Pizza Express the £35.95 cost of the meal at the rate of £4 a week.

Before prosecutor Iestyn Morgan opened the facts, the judge told him: “No doubt, you will start by telling me what the topping was.”

Maidstone Crown Court heard Friend took her five-year-old daughter to the restaurant in Tunbridge Wells High Street on February 13 this year.

Mr Morgan said the pizza was eaten apart from one slice. Friend told the waitress she needed to get the money to pay from her car.

She was asked to leave some form of security and joked about leaving her daughter. They left and did not return.

Jason Dunn-Shaw, defending, said Friend, who elected to have her case heard at Crown Court instead of being dealt with by magistrates, was of limited means, receiving Job Seekers Allowance of £70 and £50 a week in child tax credits.

“This could turn out to be the most expensive pizza you will ever have eaten in your life" - Judge Philip Statman

“There is no spare money,” he said. “She is separated from her husband who has convictions for violence.”

Judge Statman told Friend, who admitted the offence: “I am told you went to Pizza Express to give your daughter a treat, but made off without paying.

“This could turn out to be the most expensive pizza you will ever have eaten in your life, because were I to impose upon fines you to reflect your appearance here today this pizza would end up costing something like four to five hundred pounds.

“You behaved in this dishonest way in front of your child. What sort of example is that for a mother to set a daughter? You knew well fine what you were doing.”

He added: “I can see no reason whatsoever why Pizza Express should not receive the value of their pizza.”