It was "business as usual", according to a spokesperson for Witney-based Torex Retail. But the water coolers must have been buzzing following the news that its chief executive and chairman had quit after three homes were raided by police and the Serious Fraud Office. Both chief executive Neil Mitchell, of Leckford Road, Oxford, and chairman Chris Moore, of Hook Norton, stepped down from their roles a day after fraud officers and City of London police swooped on two homes in Oxfordshire and one in Warwickshire. Neither the SFO nor the company is saying whose homes were raided.

Torex Retail employs 65 people at its headquarters in Range Road, Witney, and 53 workers in Banbury, making and selling software for cash registers at retailers such as Monsoon, McDonalds and Tesco.

Last Friday it shook the stockmarket by suspending its shares and warning that profits would be lower than expected, just eight days after unveiling a raft of new contracts. The London Stock Exchange is investigating Torex and its stockbrokers for breaking rules on financial disclosure.

Iain Lynam, a specialist in turning around struggling companies, has been appointed to lead the restructuring and day-to-day running. He will also be supported by Torex's finance director Marcus Leek, 31, who lives in Warwickshire.

Mr Moore, of Hayway Lane, Hook Norton, will be replaced by Geoffrey Forster, former head of Lloyds TSB's corporate division in Oxfordshire, who lives in Uffington, near Wantage. Mr Forster, 65, who specialised in Oxfordshire technology companies and is a former manager of Lloyds bank in Wantage, will act as chairman, "with the full authority to carry on the management of the company," a statement said.

Mr Moore, a charismatic figure who became Oxfordshire Businessperson of the Year in 2000, joined Oxford Instruments in 1982 after qualifying as an accountant. He led a management buyout of a company called Smart Terminals and set up Torex at his home village of Stonesfield, near Witney, in 1996. It started out making software for Argos, then set up a healthcare software division.

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