The Tesco (LON:TSCO) fraud trial was cancelled today after Carl Rogberg, the 51-year-old former finance director of Tesco UK, suffered a heart attack last Thursday.
The judge dealing the trial, Deborah Taylor sent the jury home this Tuesday, suggesting it was not “right and proper” to continue with the prosecution while Rogberg is at the hospital waiting for a bypass surgery.
Rogberg is facing trial at Southwark Crown Court together with ex-colleagues Chris Bush and John Scoul. The three have been charged for recording inaccurate income figures for Tesco which were published to auditors, employees and the market. It was discovered they had inflated Tesco’s profits by about £250 million in 2014.
The fraud trial was expected to end by Christmas in 2017, however, there have been several delays, including Judge Taylor’s illness and a two-week-break while one of the jurors went on holiday.
The lawyer representing Rogberg had advised the jury to continue while his client was being treated, to prevent another delay, but instead it was announced the trial was being putback.
Judge Taylor said a new provisional date has been set for September this year. The Serious Fraud Office will confirm this in March.
“It has been a long period and I know it must be quite frustrating for you not to come to a conclusion at the end of all your hard work during the course of this trial,” said Judge Taylor, as reported by the BBC.Â
The trial began in September and it is estimated it has already cost more than £5 million to the taxpayer.
Tesco’s share price was down 0.88 percent, trading at 198.75p, as of 14:45 (GMT).