Mojo's Bunbury, a restaurant and wine bar in Australia, has used the power of social media to shame a couple who they claims ordered hundreds of dollars of food and wine and left without paying.

The couple, who were speaking French, racked up a $230 AU bill in the Western Australia eatery, but left their empty wallets on the table while they went outside to have a smoke, and never returned.

To make matters worse, the restaurant say the couple left an empty designer wallet on the table with the words “bad mother *****”.

Fed-up restaurant owners Juliana Frisina and Noel Brunning decided enough was enough and the couple’s image was soon posted to the restaurant’s 4000 Facebook followers.

But they never expected the post to generate thousands of shares within hours.

The couple’s image, uploaded in a post on Sunday night, has now generated more than 31,000 shares.

The post read: “Could the young French couple who skipped paying there (sic) bill last night come back today & rectify the situation. You have very identifiable tattoos & nose rings & work in a nearby farm.”

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The post attracted hundreds of comments from people who said they had seen the couple before

A follow up post on Monday, generated almost 30,000 shares.

The comments to the post have been overwhelmingly supportive.

Petz Meow Meow posted: “I have a real problem with people doing this kind of thing. If the owners of the business or their conscience doesn’t catch them I hope karma does!"

Another user Nicole Loader posted: “Shared! Hope you find them!”

Frisina told news.com.au while incidents like this were rare, they simply wanted the couple to come forward and pay for the meal and expensive wine they had.

Frisina said if the couple had been unhappy with their meal, they should have complained to staff instead of leaving without paying. However, she said staff reported the couple seemed happy and they didn’t mention anything about being dissatisfied.

The restaurant said they have referred the matter to Crimestoppers and intend to take it further with the police. However, a spokeswoman for WA Police media said it had not received a formal complaint.

The restaurant owner said the couple’s image was posted to prove a point about how hard hospitality staff work to keep customers happy.

“This couple ordered lots of expensive wine and the staff were really upset as they went out of their way to treat them well,” Frisina said.

“While it wasn’t a massive bill, it represented someone’s wages.”

She also admitted the restaurant has been overwhelmed with the response it has received on Facebook.

“It has betrayed our trust a little to be honest, but we can’t let one incident change what we do,” she said.“The response online and from our fans has been amazing.”