The trial of three former Tesco executives charged with fraud and false accounting has been abandoned.<\/p>\n
Chris Bush, Tesco’s former UK boss, John Scouler, Tesco’s former commercial food director and Carl Rogberg, its former UK finance boss have been on trial for more than four months.<\/p>\n
It emerged on Tuesday that Mr Rogberg had a heart attack last Thursday.<\/p>\n
The Serious Fraud Office will decide in early March whether to pursue a re-trial. The men deny the charges.<\/p>\n
Mr Rogberg, aged 51, remains in hospital awaiting surgery. His solicitor read out a statement on the steps of Southwark Crown Court: “Mr Rogberg is devastated at the news that the trial has been aborted.<\/p>\n
“He waived his right to attend these last stages after he had given evidence himself for many days, and had participated in the last four and half months of the trial.<\/p>\n
“He was always very anxious that this jury should be allowed to reach its verdict and is desperately sorry that they were prevented from doing so.”<\/p>\n
Discharging the jury, Judge Deborah Taylor said: “It wouldn’t be right or proper to continue with this trial.”<\/p>\n
She acknowledged the impact on the jury: “It has been a long period and I know it must be quite frustrating for you not to come to a conclusion at the end of all your hard work during the course of this trial.”<\/p>\n
Nicholas Purnell, QC, representing Mr Rogberg, had asked for the trial to continue while his client was having treatment.<\/p>\n
He told the court: “I think he would be utterly devastated to discover that as a consequence of what he has been through, there’s a possibility that the trial has to start again.”<\/p>\n
The three defendants had been accused of fraud and false accounting in connection with the retailer’s \u00a3250m accounting scandal.<\/p>\n
The criminal charges stemmed from a statement the supermarket group made three-and-a-half years ago.<\/p>\n
On 29 August 2014,\u00a0Tesco said it expected profits for the first half of its financial year<\/a>\u00a0to be “in the region of \u00a31.1bn”.<\/p>\n Some three weeks later, under the stewardship of new chief executive Dave Lewis, Tesco admitted that the figure had been overstated.<\/p>\n In fact, it said that profits had been\u00a0inflated by an estimated \u00a3250m<\/a>.<\/p>\n Further investigations discovered that irregularities, which centred around its UK food business, were also found in Tesco’s accounts for 2013-14.<\/p>\n The figures had been flattered by early recognition of payments from suppliers who sell their goods in the supermarket’s stores as well as delays in charging costs.<\/p>\n Eventually, it was determined that Tesco had overstated its profits by \u00a3284m.<\/p>\n The three men always denied the charges and argued in court that the SFO’s investigation was flawed from the outset.<\/p>\n Initially, the hope was that the case would finish before Christmas, but the trial has been beset by delays.<\/p>\n The judge became ill during her summing up and there was a further pause of two weeks when a juror went on holiday.<\/p>\n One member of the jury had already been discharged by then because of an operation.<\/p>\n It’s an outcome no one could’ve predicted – or would have wanted. It had already taken up more than a quarter of a year and had been beset by delays. There was the hope it would end before Christmas, then the judge became ill and it’s been stop, start, stop ever since.<\/p>\n Having already discharged one juror for health reasons, there was a further delay when a juror went on holiday.<\/p>\n And then there’s the cost. This has been a complex, multi-million pound, trial. The SFO, which brought the case, will now decide whether or not a retrial is appropriate.<\/p>\n Meanwhile the defendants, who denied the charges, have almost another month to wait to find out what happens next.<\/p>\n Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Analysis: Emma Simpson, at Southwark Crown Court<\/h2>\n