Failed Tesco boss receives £1.2m pay-off

[dutchman]

Former Tesco boss Philip Clarke has enjoyed a bumper day as the struggling supermarket handed out £1.22million in pay to the man who left the company in considerably worse shape than he found it.



The pay had been suspended amid last September's accounting scandal, when Tesco admitted that it had overstated its profits by around £250million - just two months after Clarke had resigned.

Tesco has also paid Clarke's finance chief Laurie McIlwee £970,880 under the separation agreement. McIlwee resigned in April last year, while Clarke was ousted in July.

On his exit Mr Clarke received six months salary plus benefits in accordance with his contract. After six months, he was then entitled to another one-off payment this January that equalled a year's salary or £1.2million.

It is this second tranche that had been withheld and was paid today.

The decision means Clarke and McIlwee will walk away with combined cash and share awards worth up to nearly £13million - at a time when thousands of Tesco staff face the axe under new boss Dave Lewis’s turnaround plans. In addition to the cash pay-outs, Clarke and McIlwee are in line for deferred share awards worth up to £6.4million and £4.1million at the current stock price.

Britain's biggest retailer said it had lifted the suspensions on contract settlements due to the former executives following legal advice which concluded it could no longer withhold them.

The Serious Fraud Office is continuing to investigate how exactly the company had overstated its profits by around £250million, with senior bosses potentially facing the threat of jail if found guilty of malpractice.

Tesco said in a statement: 'The Company is contractually committed to make the relevant payment to each former director unless it can legally establish a case of gross misconduct against him.'

Clarke, a Tesco lifer, left the supermarket last summer after saying its first quarter results were the worst he had seen in his four decades at the company.

[rebbonk]

To quote Yosser, "I could do that, gizza job!"