Tesco sued over £326m black hole in accounts

A GROUP of investors are planning to sue Tesco to recover damages they allege they suffered in relation to a £326m black hole in the supermarket’s accounts.

It comes after charges were brought against three former Tesco executives for accounting fraud relating to the 2014 ‘scandal’ where it overstated its profits.

Now litigation funder Fideres Capital has teamed up with law firm Boies, Schiller & Flexner to assemble a group of investors to bring court proceedings.

Fideres Capital said the Serious Fraud Office charges provided evidence that Tesco’s senior management was aware of the ‘accounting irregularities’. These were brought to Tesco’s attention in 2014 when a whistleblower tipped off its legal department. It was then passed on to the new chief executive Dave Lewis, who carried out an investigation before issuing Tesco’s third profits warning in as many months. The revelation caused the share price to drop by 10pc, which Fideres said had a ‘material impact’ on shareholders.

Last week former UK managing director Chris Bush, 50, ex-UK finance director Carl Rogberg, 49, and former food commercial director John Scouler, 48, were charged with fraud by abuse of position and false accounting.

Tesco declined to comment last night.