A former senior executive of the Wickes DIY chain has been cleared of helping the company to vastly inflate its profits during the mid-1990s.

Mr Justice Mitting directed that not guilty verdicts be returned for Leslie Rosenthal, former buying director of Wickes Building Supplies, after the jury at Southwark Crown Court failed to reach a decision in the long-running case. Mr Rosenthal had denied misleading the company’s auditors Arthur Andersen.

Other former Wickes executives, including then chairman and chief executive Henry Sweetbaum, were cleared of charges last November. All admitted that a fraud had occurred at the company but denied any involvement.

Mr Sweetbaum had denied that the acquisition of an under-perfoming Hunter Timber had forced the company into fraud between January 1994 and June 1996, falsely inflating profits by £22m.