text: Tesco is close to ditching the last of the private jets used by its top executives after an accounting scandal that sparked the biggest crisis in its 95-year history. Britain’s biggest grocer operated a multimillion-pound fleet of five aircraft for its bosses, but after a disastrous year new chief executive Dave Lewis admitted the planes gave the wrong image and put them up for sale. Four have been sold and the final one, a Hawker 800, will be gone by the end of next month. A similar plane can cost up to £67,000 to charter. Tesco's old Gulfstream 550, worth around £30 million,  that was capable of flying 14 executives at a time . Just days ago, Tesco managed to sell its seven-year-old, Gulfstream 550, worth around £30million new. It was capable of flying 14 executives at a time. With a top speed of 580mph, powered by two Rolls-Royce engines, it was the height of luxury, kitted out with DVD players, widescreen TVs and a bar . It even had cabins allowing executives to sleep in full-sized beds on longer journeys to America and Asia. Mr Lewis hopes the sale of the fleet will draw a line under a difficult year in which Tesco lurched from crisis to crisis, including a fraud investigation into after a £263million black hole emerged in its accounts. The supermarket haemorrhaged senior staff losing its chairman, chief executive and finance director while being hit hard by competition from German discounters Aldi and Lidl, who have stolen customers. In September Lewis was parachuted in from consumer goods giant Unilever. However less than four weeks after informing the City he no longer wanted to maintain the fleet, Lewis could not resist hopping onto a private jet to visit seven locations in Asia in four days. A spokesman said: ‘In October we said we would dispose of the five aircraft we operated. The last aircraft will be handed back by the end of May at the latest. Tesco spent nearly £29 million flying executives to different parts of the world between 2005 and 2012 . ‘The aircraft have not been used by Tesco since December. In future we will use chartered aircraft only if there is a compelling business justification and travel cannot be completed by scheduled airline.’ Between 2005 and 2012 the firm has spent nearly £29 million flying executives to different parts of the world. Previous chief executive Sir Terry Leahy has been reported as saying he preferred flights with EasyJet than flying on private jets but still managed to spend £2.3 million on the planes in 2009. The bill increased dramatically under the management of former boss Phil Clarke. In February 2011 under the tenure of Clarke it had jumped to £8.9 million. A brand new Gulfstream was delivered and sold almost immediately in November along with a Cessna Citation and another Hawker.
target: Tesco operated multimillion-pound a fleet of five aircraft for its bosses .
  Four of the private jets have been sold after they were put up for sale .
  Sale comes after grocer embroiled in £263million fraud investigation .
  Over a seven year period firm spent £29million flying executives across the world .