Former Tesco executives plead 'not guilty' over £326m fraud charges

Three former Tesco executives have denied charges in relation to the £326m ($425m) accounting scandal at the country's largest supermarket chain.

Carl Rogberg, 49, Chris Bush, 50, and John Scouler, 48, are charged with fraud by abuse of position and false accounting.

They allegedly failed to correct inaccurately inflated income figures for the supermarket, which were published to auditors, other Tesco employees and the wider market.

During a brief appearance at London's Westminster Magistrates' Court, lawyers for the men said their clients would plead not guilty to the two charges they each face

The supermarket's former finance chief, managing director and food commercial head were investigated for their alleged role in an accounting scandal in which Tesco was found to have inflated its profits by £263in 2014.

The profit overstatement, discovered three weeks after Dave Lewis took over as Chief Executive from the sacked Philip Clarke, was later corrected to £326m.

However, the impact of the probe, and subsequent internal investigations and accounting write-downs, led to Tesco reporting its biggest loss on record of £6.4bn for the year to February 2015.

The Serious Fraud Office said the investigation into Tesco "remains ongoing".

Rogberg, of Chiselhampton, Oxfordshire, Bush, of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, and Scouler, of St Albans, Hertfordshire, were released on bail and ordered to appear on October 20 at Southwark Crown Court for a plea hearing.