Former UK finance director Carl Rogberg, UK managing director Christopher Bush and food commercial director John Scouler have been charged with one count of fraud by abuse of position and one count of false accounting. The alleged activity occurred between February 2014 and September 2014.

They will appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on 22 September.

Last week, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) announced it had dropped its investigation into Laurie McIlwee, the chain’s former chief financial officer.

Tesco was hit by a major accounting scandal in 2014 resulting in a £263m ‘black hole’ in its figures.

Deloitte’s investigation at the time into the overstatement of the expected half year profits confirmed that there were amounts pulled forward or deferred, contrary to Tesco Group accounting policies and that there was similar practice in previous reporting periods. Deloitte also found that the current and previous practices appear to be linked as income pulled forward grew period by period.

The SFO’s investigation into Tesco is still ongoing.

Tesco said in a statement: 'We note the decision of the SFO to bring a prosecution against former colleagues in relation to historic issues and acknowledge the investigation into the Company is ongoing. Tesco continues to cooperate with the SFO’s investigation.

'The last two years have seen an extensive programme of change at Tesco, but given this is an ongoing legal matter, we are unable to provide any further comment at this time.'