The trial of three former Tesco executives charged with fraud and false accounting is set to begin today, Monday 25 September.
Christopher Bush (51), who was managing director of Tesco UK, Carl Rogberg (50), who was UK finance director, and John Scouler (49), who was UK commercial food director, have each been charged with one count of fraud by abuse of position and one count of false accounting.
The UK's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) announced last September that it was charging the trio, following the retailer's 2014 accounting scandal, which broke three weeks after Dave Lewis replaced Phil Clarke as chief executive.
The prosecution alleges that the men abused their positions as senior employees at the UK's largest supermarket, concealed the fact that accounts contained improperly recognised income, and falsified records, according to the Financial Times.
In August 2014, Tesco announced that it had overstated profits by £263 million – a figure that was increased to £326 million following an independent audit – causing shares of the supermarket chain to tumble.
The three former executives have pleaded not guilty.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Sarah Harford. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
