The board of Sainsbury’s has issued a warning to its chairman for using the retailer’s staff and suppliers to help refurbish his own country home in Sussex back in 2013.

Sainsbury’s told The Independent that a full investigation had been conducted into David Tyler, after the chairman volunteered the information himself.

“As a result of the investigation, the chairman was given a warning but the board concluded that his failure to comply with company policy was unintentional, that he did not act dishonestly and made no financial gain,” a spokeswoman for Sainsbury’s said.

The case was first reported by The Guardian.

The spokeswoman added that Mr Tyler had also donated £5,000 to charity “to more than compensate for the Sainsbury’s employees’ time”.

According to Sainsbury’s website, Mr Tyler was appointed to the board in October 2009 and became chairman the following month. He is also chairman of property company Hammerson and non-executive chairman of appliance care group Domestic and General.

Sainsbury’s earlier this month reported that it had enjoyed a “record Christmas week” in December, bolstered by more than 30 million customer transactions at Sainsbury’s and over £1bn of sales across the whole group.

The company said that a robust performance at its Argos unit was also particularly driven by Black Friday and the Christmas trading period.