Tesco fraud trial shelved after defendant has heart attack

Judge Deborah Taylor discharged the jury on 5 February, explaining it would not be "right and proper" to continue with Carl Rogberg, the former finance director of Tesco's UK business, awaiting surgery after being taken ill the previous week.

Taylor told the jury: "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," the BBC reported.

Rogberg, John Scouler, former commercial director for food, and Christopher Bush, who was CEO of Tesco UK, were each on trial for one count of fraud and one of false accounting. The accusations, which the men deny, are linked to an accounting scandal that left Britain's biggest retailer with a £263m hole in its accounts in 2014.

Nicholas Purnell QC, representing Rogberg, had asked for the trial, which began in late September, to continue while his client was treated. Instead a provisional retrial date has been set for 3 September 2018.

Purnell told the court: "I think he would be utterly devastated to discover that as a consequence of what he has been through, there's a possibility that the trial has to start again."

The trial was scheduled to finish before the end of 2017 but it was delayed when the judge became ill during her summing up. There was a further break of two weeks when a juror went on holiday. Another juror was discharged to have an operation, the BBC said.