A TAKEAWAY owner has hit out at bogus callers after being bombarded with fake orders.

Halil Caliskan, owner of Cal’s Charcoal Grill in Station Road, Northwich,. recently announced that the business was reducing its delivery times as a result of fake orders.

Mr Caliskan told the Guardian the final straw came after he personally made a delivery to an address late at night, only to find the people living at the address were an elderly couple.

He said: “The deliveries are upsetting me more than anything. Believe me I don’t care about food, I don’t care about money or waste.

“Before midnight I would delivery it myself. This time, I knocked on somebody’s door, it was an old couple.

“I felt so bad about them. If they did that, why are they choosing old people?

“That is upsetting me more than anything.”

Mr Caliskan said he receives at least one fake order almost every night.

He said he speaks to other takeaway owners in the area who have reported the same problem.

He said: “We are a small business, we are not talking about the person, the owner, the business is small and order is big.

“Every night, £15, £20 worth of food goes in waste.

“It adds up big time.

“I’m struggling, I’m struggling to understand what mentality they have to do this.

“Why do they do this?”

Mr Caliskan said the majority of the orders are made through Just Eat, an online food order and delivery service that acts as an intermediary between independent take-out food outlets and customers.

He said he has tried to speak to Just Eat about the problem, but has been unhappy with their response.

Mr Caliskan said Just Eat advised him to verify all new customers, but he said this does not stop the issue.

“At the end of the day Just Eat are sending me customers, they charge ridiculous money but when I ask for help and protection I get zero,” he said.

“They (Just Eat) call me a partner but I’ve never seen their partnership, they only take. It costs me £700 or £800 every week.”

Just Eat said it is ‘committed’ to continually improving its service for customers and partners.

The food delivery service said it will be working with Cal’s Charcoal Grill to resolve the issue.

A spokesman for Just Eat said: “We’re focused on connecting people with the food they love and in the UK we have over nine million customers ordering from over 28,000 restaurant partners.

“We are committed to continually improving the service we offer our restaurant partners, including enhancing account controls and verification and have a dedicated technology team to support this.

“We do ask our restaurant partners to verify orders to ensure first-time customers are genuine and we fully investigate all reports of non-genuine orders.

“Our team is looking into this particular incident and we will be working with the restaurant to resolve this.”