Two former Tesco executives are CLEARED of £250million fraud and false accounting scandal

Two former Tesco directors have been cleared of fraud and false accounting after the company's profits were overstated by £250million, it can be reported today.

The firm's shares plunged by nearly 12 per cent, wiping £2billion off the value, when it announced in September 2014 that it had overstated profits the previous month.

A jury at Southwark Crown Court in London were told this morning that Chris Bush, 52, and John Scouler, 50, had been acquitted at the Court of Appeal yesterday. 

It is a major embarrassment for the Serious Fraud Office, which is thought to have spent more than £10million on its investigation and legal fees over two trials. 

Bush, of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, was Tesco's ex-UK managing director, while John Scouler, St Albans, Hertfordshire, was its UK food commercial director. 

They were accused of being aware of income being wrongly included in Tesco's financial records to meet targets and make it look financially healthier than it was.


Who are the acquitted former Tesco chiefs? 

 
John Scouler and Christopher Bush have now been found not guilty of the charges against them.

Chris Bush

Managing director at the time of the scandal, Chris Bush was a Tesco veteran with a 30-year association with the retailer.

He was appointed managing director in January 2013, about a year and a half before the supermarket admitted that it had over-estimated profits by around £250 million.

John Scouler

Tesco's former food commercial head, John Scouler joined the grocer in 2002, having previously spent eight years with Kraft.

Since leaving in December 2014, the year of the scandal, he has become managing director of consumer business at TalkTalk.

But 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 yesterday and the men were cleared by Court of Appeal judges.

Sir John said the prosecution case was 'so weak' in some areas that it should not have gone to the jury's consideration. 

Scouler and Bush 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 Scouler and Bush.

The trial of Scouler and Bush, which began on October 8, had been expected to last three months. Bush and Scouler were first charged in September 2016. 

A first trial was abandoned in February, shortly before the jury was due to retire to consider its verdict.

Reacting to the news today, Bush said: 'On November 25, 2018, after considering the entire SFO case, the trial judge Sir John Royce, reached the 'firm conclusion' that there was no case against me, or against John Scouler.

'I am sorry to say that the SFO tried to appeal that decision. I am pleased that yesterday the Court of Appeal concluded that the trial judge was right to decide that there was no case to answer and refused the SFO permission to appeal. 





MailOnline