Tesco suspends three more employees in accounting probe

LONDON, United Kingdom - Britain's biggest retailer Tesco has removed another three employees from their jobs as it continues to probe a 250 million pounds profit overstatement.

The latest suspensions, announced on Tuesday, take the total number of suspended employees to eight.

"We have asked three employees to step aside to facilitate the investigation into the potential overstatement of profits in UK food for the first half of the year," said a spokeswoman for the firm.

The identities of the three were not disclosed.

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Tesco said it will provide an update on the investigation with its interim results on Oct. 23.

The overstatement, relating to payments from suppliers and first disclosed on Sept. 22, has knocked over 4 billion pounds off Tesco's stock market value.

The stock was down 1 percent at 178.7 pence at 12.14 GMT (1.14 p.m. BST).

People familiar with the situation have named the first five suspended executives as UK managing director Chris Bush, UK finance director Carl Rogberg, commercial director John Scouler food sourcing director Matt Simister and group commercial director Kevin Grace.

Tesco is also being investigated by the Financial Conduct Authority.