The trial of Rogberg, ex-Tesco UK managing director Christopher Bush, and former UK food commercial director John Scouler began a week ago.

All three face one count of fraud by abuse of position and one charge of false accounting, relating to the events which led up to the discovery of a £263m black hole in the retailer’s accounts in September 2014.

The case is being brought following an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). The charges allege that the defendants dishonestly falsified Tesco’s digital accounting records and its draft interim accounts by the ‘inputting of and/or reliance upon commercial income figures which gave a false account of the financial position of Tesco’.

In the opening sessions, the SFO’s lawyer, Sasha Wass QC, told the jury that it amounted to ‘cooking the books’.

‘The prosecution case in a nutshell is that all three defendants were aware that income was being wrongly included in the financial records of the company, which were used to inform the stock market.

‘Each of the defendants was aware that this would lead to the company looking financially healthier than it actually was and it would result in Tesco's trading profits being overstated.

‘This, say the prosecution, was clearly dishonest.’

Wass also told the jury they would hear evidence from Broadbent, a former Treasury civil servant and head of Customs & Excise from 2000-2003, who was Tesco’s chairman from 2011 to 2015. She said Broadbent was misled at a meeting of Tesco’s finance committee in August 2014, during which Rogberg was asked if UK profit forecasts were still sound and he confirmed that they were.

The court had already heard that Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis will be a witness, as will representatives from PwC, its auditors in 2014.

The trial continues and is expected to last around 13 weeks.

Report by Pat Sweet