On 28 March, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) announced that it had reached an agreement with Tesco Stores which, if approved by a Crown Court on 10 April 2017, would result in a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) becoming effective. The DPA involves a fine for Tesco Stores £128,992,500, as well as the SFO’s full costs in prosecuting the case, which relates to a misstatement of the retailer’s profits in 2014 based on false accounting by the Tesco subsidiary. The SFO’s costs are not disclosed anywhere, though the Tesco Group expects to take a total exceptional charge of £235 million booked as an “adjusting post balance sheet event” for fiscal 2016/17.
