Home UK Ex-Tesco directors cleared over £250m profit scandal

Ex-Tesco directors cleared over £250m profit scandal

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Two former directors have been cleared of fraud and false accounting in relation to a £250m overstatement of profits at Tesco.

Chris Bush, the chain's ex-UK managing director, and former food commercial director John Scouler, denied the charges.

They were accused of being aware that income was being wrongly included in the company's financial records to meet targets and bolster the company's financial position.

The issue came to public attention in September 2014 when the UK's biggest supermarket chain told the City that financial statements issued the previous month had overstated profits by about a quarter of a billion pounds.

The trial, at Southwark Crown Court, was formally halted on Thursday after the jury at London's Southwark Crown Court was informed that the Judge had thrown out the case and that the decision had been upheld at the Court of Appeal.

It was brought by the Serious Fraud Office.

During the trial, the jury was told the case was a retrial, and that a third man, former UK finance director Carl Rogberg, is charged with identical offences but not currently well enough to stand trial.

A decision is due to be made about what action should be taken in relation to Mr Rogberg following the acquittals of Mr Scouler and Mr Bush.

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The trial of Mr Scouler and Mr Bush, which began on October 8, had been expected to last three months and the prosecution had concluded its evidence.

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