Restaurant owner charged with manslaughter over peanut death
An Indian restaurant owner has been charged with manslaughter after a man was reported to have died after eating food prepared at the restaurant.
Paul Wilson, who had a severe allergy to peanuts, died in January last year after suffering an anaphylactic reaction having eaten a takeaway from the Indian Garden restaurant in Easingwold, north Yorkshire.
The bar manager died in the bathroom of the Oak Tree pub in Helperby, near Thirsk, where he worked.
His death sparked an investigation by the Food Standards Agency into the substitution of peanuts and almonds for more expensive cumin.
Now the Crown Prosecution Service has announced that the Indian Garden restaurant owner Mohammed Khalique Zaman has been charged with manslaughter by gross negligence.
Peter Mann, Head of the Complex Casework Unit, CPS Yorkshire and Humberside said: "The Crown Prosecution Service has been working closely with North Yorkshire Police in connection with this case.
"Having carefully considered all of the evidence presented to us, we have concluded that there is sufficient evidence, and that it is in the public interest to charge Mohammed Khalique Zaman with manslaughter by gross negligence, perverting the course of justice, and an employment offence under the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006."