The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) raided two residential properties in Gloucestershire and Warwickshire and a business address in Banbury, where Oxfordshire-based software firm Torex Retail has its headquarters, as part of its investigation into the company.

The simultaneous raids, carried out yesterday morning, did not lead to any arrests.

Yesterday afternoon, ex-chairman Christopher Moore left the company. Moore stepped down as chairman in January following the shock profit warning.

A statement given to the London Stock Exchange said simply: "The board of Torex Retail plc announces that Mr Christopher Moore, former chairman, has today resigned from the board with immediate effect."

A spokesman for Moore told the Telegraph the events were entirely unconnected and the addresses were not Moore's properties, but belonged to other people linked to Torex.

Torex came unstuck when a trading update in January, which said everything was fine, was quickly followed by a profits warning. Shares in the firm are suspended while KPMG tries to make sense of the company's accounts.

The SFO has been investigating the company since the end of January. ®