THREE waiters have been cleared of assaulting a pair of customers who left their restaurant without paying.

Now the men's boss has said they should never have been put on trial.

The case started when two customers - Neil Francis and Paul Buffrey - left the Bombay Palace restaurant in Winton without paying for the lager and poppadoms they had ordered.

Tojamul Ali, 24, Taya Rahman, 24, and Abdul Muhith, 32 - normally known as Muhith Afzal - accepted that they had thrown punches during a confrontation outside the restaurant but said it had only been in self-defence.

Restaurant owner Mahmood Miah, who is Mr Ali's father and the other defendants' uncle, said the trial should never have happened.

"The police could have ticked off both sides. That would have been the end of it," he said.

He said the restaurant, which has been open 17 years, had never seen any trouble and his staff had an unblemished record.

"They've never been in trouble before with the police or anybody in that respect. The first incident that happens in 17 years and it's taken to such an extreme," he said.

"It seems like a trivial matter gone a very long way."

He said restaurant staff should not have to put up with trouble from customers.

"In any walk of life, in hospitals now they will arrest you for abusing staff. The same sort of situation arises in a restaurant.

"These guys are here to do a job, just as nurses and doctors are, to try and serve people. We're trying to make a nice evening for the very people that then sometimes make the situation a very bad one for ourselves and other people."

Muhith Afzal said he was relieved after the 13-month wait for the case to come to court.

"They tried to leave without paying, they were disturbing customers. I was trying to sort out everything politely," he said.

"I've never been in a police station in my life and was quite worried. I said at the police station what we said in court - we defended ourselves."

The men were found not guilty on a joint charge of aggravated bodily harm against Mr Francis. Mr Rahman was found not guilty on a separate charge of ABH against Mr Buffrey.