Up-to-date coverage of the latest events in UK retail.

7:22am: Ex-Tesco exec Rogberg: There was no black hole in accounts

Former Tesco executive Carl Rogberg, who was cleared yesterday of claims of fraud and false accounting, has said there was never a black hole in the grocer’s accounts.

The former UK finance director said he was made a “scapegoat” for the retailer’s accounting scandal, which wiped £1bn off its value in 2014.

Rogberg told the BBC: “We saw in court that it wasn’t £250m, it was a maximum of £118m. And of that £118m, no fraud has been proven at all. Most of that, in my opinion, is just a different accounting judgement.”

“The real story is that this was a gateway to start kitchen-sinking by new management.” 

7:14am Philip Green seeking damages and sources from Telegraph

Retail tycoon Sir Philip Green is seeking damages from The Daily Telegraph after the newspaper printed a frontpage story alleging bullying by an unnamed businessman.

The Arcadia owner’s lawyers were granted an injunction preventing the paper from publishing Green’s identity but his name was revealed just days later by Labour peer Lord Hain in the House of Lords, who used his parliamentary privilege to break the injunction.

Green is seeking damages from The Daily Telegraph and is demanding the paper reveals its sources, including two who had agreed non-disclosure agreements with Arcadia previously.

His lawyers have accused the newspaper of colluding with Hain due to the peer being an adviser to the law firm which represented The Daily Telegraph on the issue, Gordon Dadds. Both parties denied this.