Mafia clan family member accused of failing to pay catering bill for tens of thousand of euros

Loreta Casamonica and around 300 friends dined on truffles and drank Dom Perignon champagne before she declined to pay her full bill and revellers made off with the cutlery provided

Alleged Mafia member Vittorio Casamonica gets an extravagant send-off at his funeral in Rome in August (EPA)

An alleged Mafia clan, widely seen as one of the most potent criminal gangs in Rome, has made headlines again, with one family member accused of doing a runner after getting a catering bill for tens of thousand of euros – and stealing the cutlery provided.

Magistrates say that Loreta Casamonica, of the eponymous clan, which has been linked to drug trafficking, racketeering and prostitution, had enjoyed an extravagant party in August 2013 in a converted villa on the glamorous Via Appia Antica.

Unfortunately, she declined to pay all of the bill after she and 300 or so friends had dined on truffles and drank Dom Perignon champagne. To add insult to injury, revellers made off with most of the silverware, candlesticks and crockery, Il Messaggero reports. The catering company called in the police, saying it was out of pocket to the tune of €16,000. The Rome prosecutor Maurizio Arcuri is expected to call for an indictment on the charge of embezzlement.

The Casamonica family vigorously denied it was a Mafia-type organisation, when in August, family patriarch Vittorio Casamonica had a gaudy funeral through the streets of Rome in a horse-drawn carriage. As a band played the theme to The Godfather, a helicopter scattered rose petals on the procession. A journalist who asked questions about the helicopter was threatened with murder.

In May, eight members of the clan were held for suspected loan-sharking and extortion, after charging annual interest of up to 75,000 per cent.