Judges rule ex-Tesco directors should be acquitted

TWO FORMER Tesco directors have been cleared of fraud and false accounting in relation to the company’s profits being overstated by £250m.

The firm’s shares plummeted by nearly 12 per cent, wiping £2bn off the share value, when Tesco announced in September 2014 that a statement issued the previous month had overstated profits by about a quarter of a billion pounds.

Chris Bush, ex-UK managing director, and John Scouler, the then UK food commercial director, were accused of being aware that income was being wrongly included in the company’s financial records to meet targets and make Tesco look financially healthier than it was.

But yesterday at Southwark Crown Court, the jury was told that they were acquitted at the Court of Appeal on Wednesday.

The acquittal came after trial judge Sir John Royce dismissed the case brought by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), bringing the trial to a halt after the prosecution presented its case.

The SFO went to the Court of Appeal regarding the dismissal, but its appeal was dismissed on Wednesday and the men were cleared by judges there.

Mr Scouler, 50, of The Park, St Albans, and Mr Bush, 52, of Four Acres, Green End Road, Radnage, High Wycombe, were each cleared of one count of fraud and another of false accounting.

None of this could be reported until the jury was informed.

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 was not currently well enough to stand trial.

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