Fraud case against former Tesco directors collapses
Huge blow for Britain’s Serious Fraud Office after courts find the prosecution case was too weak to continue
Two former directors of Tesco were acquitted on Thursday of fraud and false accounting at Britain’s biggest retailer following a 2014 scandal. Christopher Bush, who was MD of Tesco UK, and John Scouler, who was UK food commercial director, had been accused of cooking the books to support Tesco’s share price and secure huge compensation packages. However, judge John Royce told a jury at London’s Southwark crown court that the men had been acquitted by the court of appeal on Wednesday after it upheld his ruling that the prosecution case was too weak for the case to continue. “I concluded in certain crucial areas the prosecution case was so weak it should not be left for a jury’s consideration,” Royce said. Bush and Scouler were charged in September 2016 with one count of fraud by abuse of position and one count of false accounting. A first trial was abandoned in February, shortly before the jury was due to retire to consider its verdict. The retrial had been running since October. The...
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