Ex-BHS boss Dominic Chappell blasted as ‘Premier League liar’ who ‘threatened to kill’ associate
Former racing driver is blaming everyone apart from himself for the collapse of the high street chain
DOMINIC Chappell, the man who bought BHS for a pound from Sir Philip Green, has been slammed as a 'Premier League liar' accused of 'having his fingers in the till'.
And the chief executive of the high street chain said Mr Chappell threatened to kill him after he asked him about why £1.5million was being moved to a company called BHS Sweden.
Speaking at a parliamentary hearing, BHS chief executive Darren Topp said he had phoned Mr Chappell, and told him, “that’s theft”.
And – “between expletives” – Mr Chappell told Mr Topp not to kick off about it.
He said: "If you kick off about it, I’ll come down there and kill you."
Mr Topp told MPs that Mr Chappell "had his fingers in the till" and said Mr Chappell's assurances on buying BHS "unravelled and, rather than putting money in, he had his fingers in the till."
He claimed Mr Chappell received a £1.8 million payment from the sale of BHS and £7 million from the sale of the retailer's offices.
Darren Topp, BHS chief executive, gives evidence to MPs over the retailer's collapse
At the hearing former BHS finance consultant Michael Hitchcock said Mr Chappell was a "mythomaniac' and a "Sunday pub league retailer".
He added: "I question his intelligence, he wasn't a retailer.
“The motive was purely for his own benefit. There is a big smell test which I adopt in a lot of these situations, and it just did not smell right."
Mr Hitchcock also said he was forced to change the company's bank mandate to "stop any chance of money flowing outside of the business".
After the MPs quizzed directors from BHS and Retail Acquisitions they have moved on to questioning Mr Chappell.
He is being grilled about his role in the failure of the business after Retail Acquisitions, the company he headed, took it over.
The former racing driver admits he has made a profit despite the collapse of the high street chain.
He would not reveal how much money he has taken out of the business, and would send in a spreadsheet at a later date.
But he did admit he lent £1.5m from Retail Acquisitions to a property company connected to his father but when MPs tried to push him on this he said it was 'a sideshow'
He said: "What difference would £1.5million from BHS make in the grand scheme of things?
"It's a sideshow."
Mr Chappell it was Retail Acquisitions money that had been earned from BHS.
But he said all the stores and all the jobs would have been saved if Sports Direct had been allowed to take it over and is blaming Sir Philip for its collapse.
Mr Chappell has said if the business tycoon had assisted his team then they could have saved saved BHS.
He said his team, Retail Acquisitions, had £94million at the time it bought BHS and if it had been able to raise £120million then the company could have been saved.
And he said he believes Sir Philip wanted the turnaround attempt to fail.
He said: "I have made a profit out of this but I have worked in the company in the last 13 months and [I feel] I have deserved it.
"This was an exercise by Philip to tip us over.
"He made it very difficult to do the CVA."
And he said when they were looking for someone to buy the business he claims Sir Philip blocked a deal that could have saved the 11,000 jobs and all the stores.
"Philip said he didn't want to get involved with Mike Ashley and served the notice that tipped us over.
"Sports Direct would have saved all the stores and all the jobs," he said.
He said Sports Direct would only take over the company if it did not have to take on the £571million pensions debt and they were not given enough time to sort it out with the pensions regulator.
Mr Chappell added: ";Philip would not give us the time to push that through.
"It's devastating [for the staff]. They should not have been there."
MPs said all the problems he outlined with the business after he bought it would have been apparent beforehand if he had done proper research.
He told the MPs his team were very open about not being retailers and he also told Sir Philip about how he had been declared bankrupt.
He said: "We were given 21 days to do the transaction. Sir Philip Green said you have 21 days.";
"There was a lot of work to be done.
"Philip arranged for significant funds to be left in the business so we could continue forward.
"I believe there was a credible and viable position we could have worked through and Arcadia had a duty of care.
"I think genuinely thought that we would fail and sold it to us nevertheless.
"He made it incredibly difficult to get the property CVA, which lowered the chain's rental costs.
"We worked tirelessly to negotiate the rents with landlords and not one of them would move."
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And after this morning's hearing when Mr Hitchcock called him a 'Premier League liar', he hit back saying: "Hitchcock came in and made a lot of noise that he’d deal with the landlords....He’s a man of many words and very little delivery.
Mr Chappell said part of the problem BHS had was no-one investing any money into stores for 10 or 12 years and said some stores had no heating and that some staff loved the company so much they would come in on their days off to paint and repair things.
When asked whether he thought Topshop owner Sir Philip Green was a successful businessman, he told the MPs he's very successful at getting rich by taking huge sums of money out of companies.
Mr Chappell's original plan, discussed with Arcadia was to buy BHS 'debt free and pension free' and had considered withdrawing from the deal when Retail Acquisition was lumbered with it.
But he said there was a £50million pensions plan agreed that they believed would work.
He is adamant he's not to blame for the problems with trying to deal with BHS's pension black hole, blaming Philip Green for not co-operating with the pension regulators.
And he said a condition of the BHS deal was that Sir Philip would not allow Dominic Chappell to see the pensions regulator before the deal was done.
When asked what he would have done differently or what he has learned from next time, Mr Chappell said: ""It boils down to the pension.
"We should have spent more time dealing with the pensions prior to acquisition.
“We should have ensured Philip was contractually bound to produce trade credit insurance for the company."
And he apologised to the thousands of staff who have lost their jobs, saying: "I'm very upset that there are 11,000 people directly and a number of thousand people indirectly who now have lost their jobs.
“It's a travesty that it has happened. I'm very upset that it has happened and it was avoidable.
"It's an apology.
"I must stand as the majority shareholder and owner of BHS and stand forward and say we were part of the downfall of BHS."
MPs from the Commons Business and Pensions Select Committees are investigating the events surrounding the collapse of BHS.
Last week administrators to the department store chain called time on trying to find a buyer, resulting in the loss of up to 11,000 jobs.
The business is now being wound down and all BHS's 163 shops will close.
Yesterday BHS management sent a letter to blaming Mr Chappell for the chain's collapse.
It read: "The inability of RAL to raise sufficient funds and dispose of key property assets hindered the management team in delivering the turnaround plan.
"Any sums of financing raised or property disposals appeared to fall short of expectations.
“Under challenge, Dominic Chappell continuously assured us he would deliver on raising funds; this was not the case."
Speaking before the hearing started, the business committee chairman Iain Wright said: "In these sessions, we will want to explore how Retail Acquisitions was considered to be a suitable buyer for BHS, an apparently struggling high street store which was saddled with a large pension deficit.
"We will want to untangle the nature of the advice, both formal and informal, which was provided to Arcadia and RAL as part of the sale process.
“We will want to probe the role of directors in this sale and to examine whether the existing regulatory regime is fit for purpose."