The two men, in their early thirties, were taken into separate rooms and were offered drinks, which they paid for.

“What started as a fairly innocent few drinks then turned ugly. One of the girls asked if I wanted a Frangelico shot – which I said yes to”

A few minutes later, the man described himself as  ‘becoming drowsy’ and ‘less conscious’ after consuming the shot.

At this stage, the man wanted to charge his phone and the strip club staff offered to charge it behind the bar. The man refused and said he’d feel more comfortable with his phone within reach. The staff obliged and allowed the man to charge his phone in the private booth.

After a short period, the men then claimed that a bouncer told them they had promised the girls €500 each.

“This was a complete and utter lie”.

After realising what was going on, I stopped drinking and tried to sober up a bit. We were then being questioned.

“What hotel are you both staying at, and how much money have you got on you?”

The men refused to tell the girls and the bouncer which hotel they were staying at. At this point one of the men’s phones turned back on.

“I just remember one of the girls grabbing my thumb, the bouncer then held it down on the phone to unlock it and used my facial recognition to get into my Revolut account. At this point, they were threatening me saying that I was to transfer the owner money for wasting the girls’ time.”

Between 4.13am and 4.43am they had made three separate transactions to an unfamiliar name who they believe to be the club’s owner.

“The first for €400, another for €362.91 and a final €300 payment. That’s not to mention the €200 that we had already paid to the two women.”

“Within the space of 30 minutes I had been rinsed by these workers for the sum of €1,262.91. This didn’t even include the amount taken from my friend”.

The second man then spoke of his ordeal. “I’d been in a separate room. There were no cameras in there but you could still hear what was happening in other spaces.”

“I quickly realised that the situation was going south so I made an attempt at leaving. I was told I wasn’t allowed to leave until I paid up”.

“The staff tried to make a transaction of €520 via my card, this was rejected as a suspicious transaction by my bank.”

“They later told me to unfreeze my card so they could do it again.”

“At this point I was feeling pretty out of it, I can’t even remember if they had plied me with a drink. If my memory proves correct I was escorted to a nearby cashpoint on St George’s Road.  I then withdrew £394.17 under duress (approximately €457).”

“I felt threatened, we were in a country that was unfamiliar to us both and we were being intimidated by a group of people, out of view of the public. I remember being scared”.

“Once I’d returned to the club, the money was taken from me and they even made another transaction on my card – saying that the cash I’d taken out wasn’t enough.”

“In total they took another €700 from me in two separate transactions – one for €300 and the final one for €400”

The second man was then able to get away and quickly ran off – waiting near Big G’s in the hope that his friend would get out soon. He then went to the cashpoint and took out all the cash he could in case the perpetrators had cloned his card.

The two friends were then reunited, went to get some food and went back to their hotel. At fear of reprisal, the two men wanted their identities to remain anonymous.

Both men have since returned to the UK and have reported the transactions to Revolut in order to have their money returned to them.

Lovin Malta reached out to the strip club in question for comment but a representative stated “I cannot confirm anything”.

Tag a friend who’s planning to holiday in Malta