Restaurant owner jailed for manslaughter
In a warning for the catering industry, the owner of an Indian restaurant in Britain has been sentenced to six years jail for manslaughter after a customer died from anaphylactic shock after eating one of his curries.
Mohammed Zaman's North Yorkshire restaurant got into trouble when Paul Wilson, who had been diagnosed with a severe peanut allergy as a child and who knew the dangers of ingesting even the tiniest amount of peanuts, ordered a takeaway chicken masala.
He had specifically requested there should be no nuts in the chicken.
The restaurant however served up the chicken cooked with a groundnut mix containing peanuts.
The dish sent Wilson into anaphylactic shock. He was found slumped in his bathroom that night and died a short time later.
And it wasn’t just one case either.
Three weeks before Wilson’s death, Ruby Scott, 17, had a similar reaction after she ate at another of Zaman's six restaurants. Fortunately for her, she was rushed to hospital.
The restaurant later denied putting peanuts in her food but this was challenged by her mother.
Inspectors visited the restaurant Wilson had dined at to collect evidence. They ordered a meal without nuts and were delivered a dish which was later found to have enough nuts to kill someone with a peanut allergy.
Zaman told the court he was not in the restaurant when Mr Wilson was served and had left managers in charge.
But the prosecutors said Zaman was responsible as the owner of the restaurant for replacing almond powder in his recipes with the cheaper groundnut mix. They also said that he was 300,000 pounds ($603,000) in debt and had put profits before customer safety.
Prosecutor Richard Wright, told the court that Zaman had displayed a “reckless and cavalier” attitude to risk.
“Time and time again he ignored the danger and did not protect his customers.” He added that Zaman had “put profit before safety, and he cut corners at every turn”.
It is the first case in Britain where someone has been charged with manslaughter over the sale of food.
by Leon Gettler, May 27th 2016
