Oct 10, 2018

Tesco chief ‘shocked’ by 2014 accounting practices

The chief executive of Tesco has told of his shock when less than a month into his job in 2014 he found out about alleged practices that meant the company was accounting for income that had not yet been earned. Dave Lewis was giving evidence at a high-profile trial of two former Tesco senior managers who have been accused of fraud and false accounting. Chris Bush, who was managing director of Tesco UK, and John Scouler, who was UK food commercial director are being prosecuted for their alleged role in the scandal in which Tesco was found to have inflated its profits by £250m. The two men deny the charges in the trial at Southwark Crown Court. Prosecutor Sasha Wass QC has told the jury that after the alleged fraud was discovered, Tesco was forced to issue a corrected statement to the stock market in September 2014 saying it had overstated its profits. Giving evidence on Wednesday, Dave Lewis told the trial that he was brought in as Tesco chief executive and three weeks later, on September 19, he was alerted to a paper - known as the legacy paper - prepared by an employee, which spelled out the alleged practice of pulling forward income.

Read the full story

 Related companies

Make a complaint about Tesco by viewing their customer service contacts.