Criticism of Tesco summer 2012 according to a leaked document. Ready packed meal firm Findus, Compass Group was the world's biggest catering firm at the time, and Whitbread, which was Britain's biggest hotel group, were indicted for illegally selling concealed horse meat in food products. Compass Group had sold it to 47 Lancashire schools and a "small number" of schools in northern Ireland. As a result, Tesco dropped in market value by Wednesday 16 January 2013. Tesco, the Co-operative Group and Aldi also decided to cancel contracts with ABP Food Group because of the adulteration. In a public letter later that day, 11
Criticism of Tesco the SFO, who took matter out of the hands of the Financial Conduct Authority, the City's business regulator. The UK accountancy regulator, the Financial Reporting Council, is also reported to be monitoring Tesco. Tesco's auditor PwC declined to comment. It found that they were overstated by £118m in the first half of this year, by £70m in the 2013-2014 financial year and by £75m before that. Warwick Business School's Prof Crawford Spence said: "Now that Tesco are being investigated for fraud by the SFO, the Financial Reporting Council have yet greater reason to start an investigation into the auditors' role