Former Baugur boss Jón Ásgeir Jóhannesson will go to court in the autumn to answer charges of tax evasion and fraud.

The district court of Reykjavik has rejected Johannesson’s request to dismiss charges bought against him of tax fraud and tax evasion between 1998 and 2000.

In December, charges were bought against Johannesson, his sister Kristinu, Tryggva Jonssyni and Johannesson’s holding company Gaumur.

Johannesson wanted a dismissal on the grounds that the investigation in to the case, which has been ongoing for a number of years, has taken too long and that prosecutor Helgi Magnus Gunnarsson didn’t make an independent evaluation.

A spokesman for Johannesson confirmed that the request for a dismissal of the charges had been denied by the court but declined to comment further as he was yet to see the reasons given for the rejection.

Johannesson was at the helm of Baugur, which invested in large swathes of the UK high street including House of Fraser, Iceland and Hamleys, before it fell in to administration in February as revealed by Retail Week.