Former Tesco executives to face fraud trial in Sept 2017

LONDON (Reuters) - Three former senior executives of Tesco accused of fraud and false accounting at Britain's biggest retailer were told on Thursday that they will face trial next September. Christopher Bush, 50, who was managing director of Tesco UK,Carl Rogberg, 49, who was UK finance director, and John Scouler,48, who was UK food commercial director, were charged by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) on Sept. 9 with one count of fraud by abuse of position and one count of false accounting. They made a brief appearance at London's Westminster Magistrates' Court on Sept. 22, when lawyers for the men said their clients would plead not guilty. At Thursday's hearing at Southwark Crown Court in London the trio spoke only to confirm their names. After hearing legal argument Judge McCreath said their trial will start on Sept. 4, 2017, though they will appear for another pre-trial hearing on May 30. The SFO said the alleged crimes occurred between Feb. 1and Sept. 23, 2014. Tesco issued a statement to the Stock Exchange on Sept. 22,2014, saying that during its final preparations for a results announcement it had identified a 250 million pound overstatement of first-half profit, mainly due to booking commercial deals with suppliers too early. The discovery led to the suspension of eight senior members of staff including Bush, Rogberg and Scouler, sent Tesco's shares tumbling and plunged the company into the worst crisis since Jack Cohen founded the business nearly 100 years ago. The profit overstatement, identified three weeks after Dave Lewis took over as chief executive from the sacked Philip Clarke, was later raised to 263 million pounds. The SFO investigation into Tesco is continuing. When the trio were charged, Tesco issued a statement saying that there has been an "extensive programme of change" at the company over the past two years. It declined to comment further. (Reporting by James Davey; Editing by David Goodman)