Tesco Suspends Fifth Exec Over £250m Black Hole

A fifth Tesco executive has been suspended over a £250m black hole in its financial accounts.

It is understood to be group commercial director Kevin Grace.

Shares in Tesco were up more than 3% in mid-Tuesday trading, however they are down around 50% over the last year.

Mr Grace has been on the executive committee since December 2011 and has worked at the retailer since 1982.

Four executives were originally suspended following the revelation that Britain's biggest retailer had overstated its profit by £250m.

The company commissioned an independent inquiry into the causes behind the accounting error.

The City watchdog, the FCA, said it would also launch its own "full investigation" into the issue.

Tesco said it is co-operating fully with the watchdog.

The chain said it would update the City on its own internal investigation into the error when its full-year results are released on 23 October.

The four senior executives previously suspended included UK managing director Chris Bush, pending the outcome of the probes.

On 22 September Tesco announced the accounting error , after it issued a profit warning in August.

It also emerged the company had not had a finance chief in place for months.

The £250m figure relates to how it logs suppliers' rebates and if they were reported in the correct accounting period.

A day after the revelation, Tesco said its new incoming finance chief Alan Stewart, who was not due to start until 1 December, would commence work two months early.