Man jailed over peanut curry death

Mohammed Zaman. Photo / North Yorkshire Police

A penny-pinching restaurant boss was today jailed for six years after being found guilty of killing a customer by serving him a meal containing ground peanuts and triggering a fatal allergic reaction.

Mohammed Zaman, 53, used cheaper ground peanuts at his restaurants, rather than almond powder, resulting in the manslaughter of nut allergy sufferer Paul Wilson, 38, in North Yorkshire.

Wilson never recovered after eating a takeaway curry from the Indian Garden in Easingwold, despite telling staff he could not eat nuts - and a judge has now blasted Zaman as "reckless".

Recorder of Middlesbrough Judge Simon Bourne-Arton said Zaman had built up his businesses since arriving in Britain 40 years and gathered a property portfolio worth more than £2 million.

He added: "You threw all that away. You have done so in pursuit of profit. You have done so in such a manner as to bring about the death of another individual. Paul Wilson was in the prime of his life. He, like you, worked in the catering trade. He, unlike you, was a careful man."

The judge said married father-of-four Zaman had told 'many lies' to the jury, adding: 'You remain in complete and utter denial for what you have done.'

Earlier Wilson's heartbroken parents Keith and Margaret Wilson said today that a mere mouthful of the contaminated chicken tikka masala was enough to kill their son.

During a trial that led to his conviction it emerged that Zaman ran up £294,000 debts in his restaurants so was substituting ingredients for cheaper alternatives.

Yet he was still paying for his son to go to the prestigious private St Peter's School in York from his business account.

Wilson died three weeks after a teenage customer at another of Zaman's six restaurants suffered an allergic reaction which required hospital treatment.

The prosecution said the owner had a "reckless and cavalier attitude to risk" and "put profit before safety" at the restaurants he owned.

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 course of justice.