Lidl UK managing director Frank-Michael Mros is understood to have stepped down from his post.

According to newspaper Lebensmittel Zeitung, Mros stepped down suddenly last week.

Mros joined Lidl UK only in late 2009. His appointment was controversial as he was the previous boss of Germany where he had to stand down following a scandal after it was claimed the company collected and stored data on employees’ medical records.

At the time a Lidl spokesman said Mros was not dismissed after the furore in Germany but instead, “took responsibility for what happened as the MD for the country and made the decision to step down from his position”.

The grocer was fined £31,472 by the Information Commissioner for the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia after it found that at least four Lidl stores in the region had been collecting and storing information on employees’ medical conditions on specially produced forms.

It is not known if Mros has been replaced yet.