Friendly Fires rocker JACK SAVIDGE had a scrape with the law during a recent trip to Brazil, when he was caught fleeing a nightclub without paying his bar bill.
The drummer panicked after accumulating a huge tab he couldn't afford to settle.
His plan to make a run for it was working, until two police officers spotted him sprinting down the street and leaped into action.
Savidge's bandmate Ed MACfarlane reveals, "They have this stupid system where they give you a credit card when you turn up, you buy drinks with this credit card and then pay when you leave, so basically spend loads of money that you don't have. The queue to leave the venue was ridiculously long and Jack basically didn't have enough money to pay for any of his drinks and decided to do a runner for it.
"He got through the door, it was p**sing it down with rain, got round one corner, got round another one, pegged it down the street then two Brazilian police (officers) caught him and slammed him pretty hard on the floor. And then they threw him back in the club, which was probably the worst thing about it, because the club was horrible. It was playing really bad music".
It's not Savidge's first brush with drama - just last week he came close to missing the band's performance at the Mercury Music Prize (8Sep09) in London after seeking hospital treatment for a rash on his leg.
The star was diagnosed with cellulitis - a painful skin infection - and released the morning of the bash.