Leading Lawyers Question The Impact On SFO Going Forward

The collapse of the Tesco fraud trial today could add to further pressure on the SFO, according to Sarah Wallace Irwin Mitchell’s  London Head of Regulatory and Criminal Investigations.

The case against Chris Bush, Tesco’s former UK head and John Scouler, former commercial food director, who had been accused  of concealing “improperly recorded income” and “bullying others” to falsify Tesco’s figures, ultimately misleading the stock market, fell to pieces today. The prosecution was unable to produce evidence that the defendants knew there was a serious and fraudulent problem with the accounts and that the “pulling forward” of income  into one financial period when it should have been booked later, was a “legitimate” practice used in many areas.

The collapse of the case four years after the accounting scandal first erupted is the second blow to the SFO this year. It recently lost its appeal to pursue Barclays Bank regarding its £12 billion bailout secured from the state of Qatar in 2008, after a five year investigation into the deal.