Former Tesco director sidesteps accounting scandal charges

In the aftermath of Tesco’s accounting scandal, several high-profile directors and managers faced possible charges, but former group commercial director, Kevin Grace, has now been told the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) will not follow through.

Accounting scandal fallout

Weeks after current Tesco CEO, Dave Lewis, took over the reins of the British supermarket chain in September 2014, an enormous accounting scandal broke. It was revealed that the company had embellished its profit by 250 million pounds (nearly 300 million euro).

The CEO moved quickly to suspend a group of directors, while others left the company themselves, including Kevin Grace. Unlike Grace, three other senior executives will face charges of fraud and false accounting after a SFO investigation: Tesco UK’s managing director, Christopher Bush, UK finance director Carl Rogberg and UK food commercial director, John Scouler.

Current CEO Dave Lewis, who took over from Philip Clarke (who will also not face any charges) and his current team have since worked to turn the company around, suffering huge losses in the process. However, earlier this year, Tesco finally managed to present an actual profit once more.