Spicy Affair curry house owner guilty of sexually assaulting waitresses

He accused the six victims of lying

national

The owner of a Leamington Spa curry house is facing jail after being found guilty of sexually assaulting young waitresses at his restaurant.

Pervy Prashant Sengar, 40, stroked women’s thighs and slapped their bottoms and was described as having “wandering hands”.

A court heard he groped two of his six female victims while they were interviewing for jobs at Spicy Affair in Leamington Spa, between 2012 and 2013.

The “arrogant” businessman also made unwanted sexual advances towards existing members of staff and tried to kiss them at the end of their shifts.

On Monday, Sengar was found guilty of seven charges of sexual assault at Warwick Crown Court.

The restauranteur was described as ‘arrogant’ with ‘wandering hands’

Spicy Affair restuarant is in Victoria Terrace, Leamington Spa

He was denied bail and remanded in custody and the case was adjourned for pre-sentence reports by Judge Andrew Lockhart QC.

Prosecutor Lee Marklew told the court: “A number of young women will tell you that Prashant Sengar is a man with wandering hands.

“Hes an arrogant man and abused his position of authority with these ladies, knowing it was awkward for them to complain.”

The court heard Sengar assaulted his first victim soon after she started working at Spicy Affair in 2012 when he slapped her bottom when she walked past him.

The sleazy manager then tried to kiss her at the end of her shift, and when she refused he told her she could not want the job that much if that was her attitude.

Mr Marklew added: “Faced with his bullying, sexually invasive manner, she quit and reported it to the police the next day.”

The jury was told Sengar was not charged at this point because it was “just one word against another.”

Two more young women went for interviews at the Spicy Affair the following year, when Sengar talked to them “in a manner which was unsettling and inappropriate”.

Sengar groped interviewees and asked if they were prepared to ‘flirt and mess around’

He asked them if they were single and if they were prepared to “flirt and mess around” before getting a staff member to show one of them around so he could be alone with the other.

Sengar grabbed the victim’s knee and asked if she would model for him and when she froze he asked her to go upstairs and ask her friend to come down.

He then placed his hand on the thigh of the second girl and leaned in to try and kiss her but she rejected his advances.

Although he was arrested again, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided again not to prosecute.

Sengar’s next victim responded to an advert for dancers, which had been placed by an agency the restaurant owner had an interest in.

He arranged to interview her, met her in the bar and asked her to follow him to a room he had paid for.

The court heard when she tried to leave he grabbed her top and looked down it at her breasts.

She later said she believed he had been using the “audition” to try and get sexual favours.

Sengar went back to the restaurant where he interviewed another young woman and while they were looking at the till he draped his arm over her shoulder and began stroking her back.

He offered her the job, but she quit after a few days when he began patting her bottom.

The day before she walked out, Sengar had interviewed another woman and told her the pay was not just for restaurant work, but for playing and flirting as he rubbed his hand on her thigh and bottom.

When she got home, she told her partner what had happened who then called the police.

Officers found documents at the restaurant through which they were able to trace other victims including the dancer  and this time Sengar was prosecuted.

He accused all six women of lying but the jury dismissed his claims and found him unanimously guilty following a six day trial.

Sengar will be sentenced at the same court on September 10.