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Infamous restaurant freeloader found dead in Ghent, Belgium

He was an unrepentant gastronomic freeloader, from lobster right up to the after-dinner brandy, always enjoying the bounty to the fullest.

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Titus Clarysse dining in 2009 in Ghent, Belgium. Notorious for not paying his bills, he was found dead in his home on Tuesday. Photo: AP

He was an unrepentant gastronomic freeloader, from lobster right up to the after-dinner brandy, always enjoying the bounty to the fullest.

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Titus Clarysse was infamous in and around the northern Belgian town of Ghent for walking into any restaurant of his choosing, ordering whatever his stomach and palate craved and walking out without paying.

"Curse him? Maybe. But kill him? That makes no sense," said Tim Joiris, the head of the Ghent region restaurant and hotel federation.

Two days after the 35-year-old Clarysse was found dead in his apartment, investigators on Thursday were looking for suspects in what spokeswoman Annemie Sirlippens called "a case of murder or manslaughter".

Newspapers reported Clarysse was stabbed - a detail police would not confirm - on Monday night. There was no immediate indication of the motive and Sirlippens refused to provide more details.

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Clarysse's gastronomic past, though, was the stuff of lore.

"We are talking about 100 incidents spread over several convictions," Sirlippens said, and at least a half-decade of gastronomic and financial excess.

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