Mohammed Zaman used cheaper peanut powder to save money.
By Sreekanth A. Nair
A court hearing in England revealed an Indian restaurant owner killed a customer by serving him a dish that contained deadly peanut powder, in Easingwold, North Yorks.
Paul Wilson, 38, ate a curry made with peanut powder from the restaurant of Mohammed Zaman, 53, and died at his home after suffering severe peanut allergy, reported The Telegraph.
The jury also heard that Zaman used cheaper ground nut mix, which contained peanuts, as a way of reducing costs and he also employed workers illegally in his restaurants.
A student named Ruby Scott, 17, had suffered the same allergy in 2014 after having eaten Chicken Korma from one of Zaman’s restaurants. Though Scott’s mother had warned him about the use of peanut powder, he said that he didn’t use it and continued the practice.
“We say Paul Wilson did what he always did and ordered no nuts in clear and simple terms. There was no confusion here. Instead, there was a business in which corners were being cut for the sake of profits, systems were non-existent and the customer was constantly exposed to danger,” Prosecutor Richard Wright, QC, was quoted as saying by Telegraph.
“There is no doubt at all that the curry he ate, the lid of which bore the legend “no nuts,” contained peanuts and that the peanuts caused his death by way of an allergic reaction to eating them,” he added.
The court was informed that Zaman continued using the same powder even after the death of Paul Wilson. Trading standards investigators bought a meal from his restaurant and found that it contained a lethal amount of peanut powder.
“An analysis of the curry recovered from the plate in the kitchen of Paul Wilson’s home also demonstrated that peanut had killed him. Less than three grams of the sauce from the curry would have been sufficient to give rise to the level of peanut in the stomach,” Richard Wright told the Telegraph.
Zaman replaced almond powder with the nut powder to save costs as he was running the business at the limits of his overdraft. He asked Blackburn-based food supplier Fakir Chilwan to supply him the nut powder which was half the price of the almond powder. The supplier had warned him of the potential threat of using the ingredient that contained a substantial level of nut powder.
However, Mohammed Zaman has denied all the charges leveled against him, including contravening EU food safety regulations.