A MULTI-award winning restaurateur accused of the manslaughter of a customer with a nut allergy has denied cutting corners to save money in the face of a spiralling £294,000 debt.

Mohammed Zaman also told his trial at Teesside Crown Court that despite having run numerous restaurants in York and North Yorkshire for 35 years he had no idea illegal workers were staffing the Indian Garden restaurant, in Easingwold, the night nut allergy sufferer Paul Wilson ordered a supposedly nut-free chicken tikka masala that contained peanuts.

Richard Wright QC, prosecuting, said: "You choose to blame other people, Mr Zaman, rather than taking any responsibility yourself, and that is your approach to the case, isn't it?"

Father-of-four Zaman, a Bangladeshi who migrated to York aged 15, replied: "Yes, that is the reality", adding his suppliers, his manager, his chef and his waiter had all let him down.

The court heard the 53-year-old was a vastly experienced restaurateur, and had been recommended in the House of Commons by the former Thirsk MP Anne McIntosh, and had run the Gate of India, Indian Ocean, Viceroy of India, King's Ransom, Jaipur Spice and Olive Tree restaurants in York and others in Easingwold and Pickering.

Zaman, from Huntington, York, claimed after injuring a finger in 2012 he had stepped back from the management of his restaurants and took no part in ordering or receiving ingredients.

He also told the court when Deepak Bhattarai, manager of the Indian Garden called him at 1.57am, hours after the death of Mr Wilson, 38, of Helperby, near Thirsk, urging him to go to the restaurant, he didn't go as he had toothache.

After Zaman insisted he would not use cheaper ingredients as customers' experience was paramount for him, and said he always bought fresh lamb at £9.50 a kilo, Mr Wright produced numerous restaurant invoices with entries for frozen lamb at £4.90 a kilo. Zaman replied his staff had ordered the frozen meat.

Questioned by Alistair Webster QC, he said he never ordered or even seen a bag of groundnut mix powder, and that after being made aware of teenage peanut allergy sufferer Ruby Scott suffering an allergic reaction to a supposedly nut-free curry, he told his manager not to use the powder as it might “change the taste of curries”.

Zaman dismissed claims he had employed illegal workers to cut costs or that £29,000 of cheques to suppliers bounced in a five-month period as his debts rose by £100,000 in 2013, and said paying his son's £16,000-a-year fees for St Peter's School, York, out of his business account was normal.

He added he was dumbfounded, leading him to "scream", when he discovered his home help, who had no legal right to work elsewhere, at the Indian Garden.

Zaman denies manslaughter by gross negligence, perverting the course of justice and six food safety offences.

The trial continues.