Texas police have charged a former Chick-fil-A employee for allegedly defrauding the fast food company of the cost of 800 trays of mac-and-cheese.

The Grapevine Police Department alleges that the employee had been fired a month earlier, but returned to a branch of the fast food chain and made his way behind the counter, where he rang up the catering-sized portions of the rich pasta dish.

They say he then refunded the cost of the order – $80,000 (£58,800) – to his personal credit cards.

Police tried to arrest him multiple times before succeeding on 17 April, the department said in a social media statement. He was charged with property theft, money laundering and evading arrest.

US media named the suspect as 23-year-old Keyshun Jones. Records show he is currently in custody at Green Bay prison in Forth Worth, Texas. The New York Times reported that Jones's lawyer declined to comment.

The Chick-fil-A catering menu lists the cost of a large tray of its mac-and-cheese at around $100 depending on location. The number of calories in the baked macaroni dish, which features three types of cheese, is almost 10,000 (40,000 kilojoules).

The Chick-fil-A store shared surveillance footage appearing to show the sacked worker returning to the store and using a register behind the service counter.

CCTV footage shows the man wearing a brown puffer vest, blue jeans and backwards white cap, not the chain's branded red polo uniform.

It is alleged he used the restaurant's point-of-sale system to issue unauthorised refunds to his personal accounts. It is unclear why he was fired before the incident.

He was eventually found and arrested following a joint operation of the Texas attorney general's Fugitive Task Force and the Fort Worth Police Department.

By Harry Sekulich