One of the former Tesco executives who denies misleading the market about the supermarket’s profits allegedly had the discrepancy read out to him, a court has heard.
Carl Rogberg, 50, Chris Bush, 51, and John Scouler, 49, are accused of failing to correct inaccurately recorded income figures, which were published to auditors, other employees and the wider market.
Amit Soni, who joined the UK arm of Tesco as senior accountant in June 2013, told Southwark Crown Court in London that on 16 September 2014 he had a meeting with Scouler, the group commercial director, and Bush who was present via telephone conference.
He said that in the meeting Scouler presented a legacy document, which detailed how the figure of £240m had come about.
Prosecutor Sasha Wass QC, asked Soni how that document was presented.
Soni replied: “John Scouler presented the paper by reading out from the paper.
“It was very detailed, almost word by word.”
He was then asked what Bush said after hearing the details in the paper.
Soni said: “He said, to the effect, this legacy number will have to be discussed with Dave Lewis, the new chief executive of the company, and equally there is a responsibility, corporate responsibility is the word I remember, corporate responsibility for everybody to hit the budgets, or hit the numbers.”
He added he had also sent a copy of the document via email to Rogberg, but could not remember receiving any response.
Rogberg, of Chiselhampton, Oxfordshire; Bush, of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire; and Scouler, of St Albans, Hertfordshire all deny the charges.
The trial continues.
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