North Yorkshire takeaway owner 'ignored warnings' before allergy death
Paul Wilson suffered a fatal allergic reaction after buying a takeaway containing peanuts from the Indian Garden restaurant in January 2014.
A man with a severe peanut allergy died after eating a curry from a restaurant whose owner repeatedly ignored warnings that he could be putting customers' lives at risk, a court has heard.
Paul Wilson, 38, was found dead at his home in Helperby, North Yorkshire, after buying a takeaway containing peanuts from the Indian Garden restaurant owned by Mohammed Zaman in January 2014, Teesside Crown Court was told.
Zaman, 53, has gone on trial accused of Mr Wilson's manslaughter after he took a reckless and cavalier attitude to risk'' andput profit before safety'' at the restaurants he owned, the jury heard.
Richard Wright QC, prosecuting, told the court Zaman had swapped from using almond powder to the cheaper groundnut powder, containing peanuts, in June 2013 but, despite a warning from his supplier, did not warn customers that he was using peanut ingredients.
Just weeks before Mr Wilson died, a 17-year-old girl was treated in hospital for a reaction caused by a peanut allergy after eating a curry from another restaurant owned by Zaman, the court heard.
She was assured by staff that the meal would not contain peanuts, the jury was told.
Mr Wright said that a week before Mr Wilson's death, a trading standards officer found evidence of peanuts in a meal she had been told was peanut-free and discovered a box labelled blanched ground peanut in the kitchen of Zaman's Jaipur Spice restaurant in Easingwold, North Yorkshire.
She told staff that customers in all of Zaman's restaurants must be informed they were using peanuts, the court heard.
Mr Wright said that, on the night of his death on January 30 2014, Mr Wilson told staff at the Indian Garden restaurant, in Easingwold, 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.
Mr 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.''
Mr 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.''
Zaman, from Huntington, York, denies manslaughter by gross negligence, perverting the course of justice and six food safety offences. The trial continues.