An Indian restaurant owner with a “cavalier attitude” to safety has been jailed for six years for the manslaughter of a customer with a peanut allergy, after he supplied him with a curry containing peanuts.
Paul Wilson, 38, was meticulous about his condition and asked for no nuts when staff at the Indian Garden, Easingwold, North Yorkshire, cooked his chicken tikka masala takeaway in January 2014.
Wilson, a bar manager, died from a severe anaphylactic shock. He was found slumped in the toilet at his home in Helperby.
Mohammed Zaman, the restaurant’s owner, was convicted of gross negligence manslaughter and sentenced to six years in jail after the jury at Teesside crown court was told he swapped almond powder in recipes for cheaper groundnut mix, containing peanuts, despite warnings.
The prosecution alleged Zaman, who owned six restaurants in York and North Yorkshire, was almost £300,000 in debt and cut costs by using the cheaper ingredient and by employing untrained, illegal workers.
Wilson died three weeks after a teenage customer at another of Zaman’s restaurants had an allergic reaction that required hospital treatment. She had been assured her meal would not contain nuts. The prosecution said the owner had “put profit before safety”.
Zaman, from Huntington, York, denied manslaughter by gross negligence, perverting the course of justice and six food safety offences. He was found guilty of all charges except perverting the course of justice.
He claimed he left managers to run his restaurants and that included ordering stock and hiring staff. He was not on the premises when the curry was sold.
Richard Wright QC, prosecuting, said Wilson had told staff that his meal must be nut-free. He said the restaurant had written “no nuts” on his order and on the lid of his curry.
Wright said: “Mohammed Zaman received numerous warnings that he was putting his customers’ health, and potentially their lives, at risk. Tragically for Paul Wilson, Mohammed Zaman took none of those opportunities and ignored all of the warnings he was given.
“His was a reckless and cavalier attitude to risk and one that we, the prosecution, would describe as grossly negligent.”
Wright added: “Time and again he ignored the danger and did not protect his customers. The evidence will establish that Mohammed Zaman put profit before safety and that he cut corners at every turn.”
Police and trading standards launched an investigation following Wilson’s death. Groundnut powder was found in the kitchen of the Indian Garden and had contaminated other ingredients. A test purchaser went to the Indian Garden the day after Wilson’s death and was assured by a staff member that they could buy a nut-free curry.
Wilson’s parents, Keith and Margaret, from Sheffield, said their son had carefully managed his condition since he was seven when he had a reaction to a Marathon (Snickers) chocolate bar.
He loved curry but was always clear when ordering that his food must not contain nuts, she said. Outside court, DI Shaun Page said Wilson’s death was totally avoidable.
Zaman did not visibly react when the guilty verdicts were returned. Family members sobbed and hugged him as he left court and went into a consultation room before he was later sentenced.