An Indian restaurant owner with a "cavalier attitude" to safety has been convicted of the manslaughter of a customer with a nut 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 restaurant in North Yorkshire, cooked his chicken tikka masala takeaway.
Bar manager Mr Wilson was found slumped in the toilet at his home in Helperby in January 2014 and had died from a severe anaphylactic shock.
Indian restaurant owner Mohammed Zaman was convicted of gross negligence, manslaughter following a trial at Teesside Crown Court at which the jury was told he swapped almond powder in recipes for cheaper peanut mix, containing peanuts, despite warnings.
The prosecution alleged Zaman, who owned six restaurants in York and North Yorkshire, was almost AUD 602,710 in debt and cut costs by using the cheaper ingredient and by employing untrained, illegal workers.
Mr Wilson died three weeks after a teenaged customer at another of Zaman's restaurants suffered an allergic reaction which required hospital treatment. She had been assured her meal would not contain nuts.
The prosecution said the owner had "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 and received a six-year sentence.
