Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck restaurant seat ballot bypassed by scammers An online ballot to award the public bookings at celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck restaurant was bypassed after a group employed an IT expert to help them win dozens of seats. A group of finance professionals secured 50 bookings after hiring an expert based in Asia to write a computer program that bypassed a control that was supposed to block multiple ballot entries, Fairfax Media reported. There were more than 90,000 ballot entries in total requesting almost 268,000 seats at the highly anticipated UK restaurant's six-month opening in Melbourne. There were 14,000 seats are available, at a cost of $525 per head. The finance workers, who have not been named but who are based in the city, didn't like their odds of securing a spot. They managed to submit more than 800 applications. "All [the bookings] are going to friends and clients at cost price," a member of the trio told Fairfax Media. They were not the only group to use the strategy, with another company securing 40 tables which they are selling for a profit of $500 per head, Fairfax reported. Those who missed out were not happy about the tactics and complained on social media that the system was unfair, with #FatDuck trending on Twitter Tuesday morning. Some even believed it was a Liberal party conspiracy. Others were more optimistic. Successful entrants now have 14 days to pay for their seats in order to secure their booking. Wannabe foodies took to Gumtree to request tickets from successful diners, many saying they were happy to negotiate a price above cost and one saying they would "reward generously" for a seat. Guardian Australia has contacted Crown Tower Resorts, home to the restaurant, and Blumenthal's media company for comment. Fairfax reports Crown lawyers are investigating whether the bookings can be reversed. While ticket-scalping laws apply to Australian sporting events, there is nothing in the legislation about restaurant bookings.