Accused serial 'Dine-and-Dash Dater' confronted by his alleged victims in California court, hears how he 'humiliated' them

He allegedly dined and dashed during dates with at least 10 unsuspecting women – and prosecutors want him served with a lengthy jail sentence.

Paul Guadalupe Gonzales, 45, appeared for his preliminary hearing in a Pasadena, Calif., courtroom Tuesday and furiously scribbled notes as multiple women testified about their dates from hell with the fast-talking, wine-guzzling alleged serial tab-skipper.

Martha Barba said she agreed to meet Gonzales at a Chipotle restaurant on July 4, 2016, and let him talk her into a meal down the street at the upscale eatery Houston’s even though she could tell he wasn’t her type.

“I didn’t want to go. He didn’t look like his pictures. I wasn’t attracted to him,” Barba testified Tuesday. She only agreed to go along to be “nice,” she said.

“He kept saying, ‘I got you. Order whatever you want. It’s on me. Don’t worry about it,’” Barba said. “He ordered steak, wine, salad, just whatever you could order.”

She said at one point Gonzales got up to take a call and suggested she order dessert while he stepped away. He never came back. She was stuck with the bill that topped $120.

A single mom, Barba said she had to dip into her rent money that month to cover the tab.

“I felt embarrassed and didn’t want to say anything,” she testified. “I felt humiliated.”

Another alleged victim, Yolanda Lora, spoke to the Daily News outside the courtroom.

She recalled meeting Gonzales online in late 2017 and accepting his invitation to meet at a sushi restaurant in West Hollywood.

“I remember he was talking really fast and eating really fast and then said his youngest son was calling him,” Lora told The News, recalling that Gonzales ordered two glasses of wine in the space of only 10 or 15 minutes.

He got up for the call and never returned, she said.

“What kind of monster does this? I was so embarrassed. I’m not an insecure woman, but it made me feel very insecure,” she said. “I’m just glad he got caught. I don’t any other women to have to go through that.”

According to prosecutors, Gonzales ordered expensive wines, steaks, lobster tails, chocolate souffle and other delicacies during more than a dozen dine-and-dash dates that amounted to instances of extortion, fraud and petty theft over the last two years.

Prosecutors previously said he was facing up to 16 years behind bars in the case, but on Tuesday, they dropped four of 18 charges against Gonzales due to the unavailability of witnesses. It wasn’t immediately clear how much time the move shaved off the possible maximum sentence.

Gonzales has pleaded not guilty in the case and remains in custody after his arrest last March.

“The defendant’s wrongful conduct induced innocent third parties to pay for his meal, using the implied threat of public humiliation or being viewed as an accomplice to defrauding an innkeeper,” Los Angeles prosecutors said in a court filing last week.

During one date in May 2016, Gozales ran up a $250 tab at Tam O’Shanter restaurant in Los Angeles, feigned an excuse to leave the table and left victim Marjorie Moon alone with the bill, which she paid, prosecutors said.

In two instances, the restaurants allegedly picked up the check after Gonzales left his dates alone, prosecutors said.

In an unrelated incident, Gonzales allegedly received hair color and a cut from a salon and left without paying, still wearing the salon’s robe, prosecutors said.

Gonzales’ preliminary hearing was expected to stretch into a second day Wednesday. At the end of testimony, the judge is expected to rule on whether the evidence presented warrants a trial on the charges filed.