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UK trial of former Tesco executives abandoned

The trial of three former U.K. executives of grocery retailer Tesco Plc, who are accused of fraud, was abandoned Feb. 6 after one of the defendants suffered a heart attack, according to media reports.

The U.K.'s Serious Fraud Office, which investigates complex cases, will decide whether to seek a retrial.

Carl Rogberg experienced a cardiac event Feb. 1 and was hospitalized awaiting surgery, the BBC reported on its website. The trial at London's Southwark Crown Court had been going on for 18 weeks, the Financial Times reported on its website, but had encountered delays, including the judge being taken ill and a juror's prearranged vacation.

The case centers on a report to the London Stock Exchange on Aug. 29, 2014, in which Tesco, the U.K.'s largest grocer by revenue, had forecast trading profit for the six months to Aug. 23, 2014, to be roughly £1.1 billion.

However, in a trading update Sept. 22, 2014, Tesco said the figure had been overstated by an estimated £250 million "principally due to the accelerated recognition of commercial income and delayed accrual of costs."

Rogberg, the former U.K. finance director; Christopher Bush, managing director of Tesco U.K.; and John Scouler, who was director for commercial food, each faces one count of fraud and one count of false accounting. The three defendants deny the charges.