We got 10 calls a day from people wanting payment... as he was buying lobster dinners and £200 jumpers
SUNDAY MIRROR Former PA of BHS boss on chaos at previous business
She said: “It’s hilarious he was ever put in charge of BHS. Having worked with him I’m not surprised at all that the company has failed.”
Hollie, 30, now a mum of one, first joined Chappell’s Island Harbour marina development as a £6.30-an-hour receptionist when she was 23.
The firm was set up to build 48 homes on the Isle of Wight but went into administration just six months after Hollie joined, leaving a string of debts. It was only one of several failed businesses presided over by Chappell, who has been insolvent three times.
Recalling her time with Chappell – branded a “Premier League liar” with his fingers in the till by his own execs at BHS – Hol l ie said: “From the off I didn’t gel with him, I didn’t like his personality.
“Initially my job was just to get rid of people calling for money.
“There were 10 calls every day – people who had done services for him, people who had set up computers, phone lines, caterers who had provided for events.
“One small business was owed £12,000 and it almost ran them into the ground. I was told to tell them cheques had been posted.”
Hollie claimed Island Harbour had “dozens” of unpaid invoices yet Chappell continued to spend freely on everything from designer clothes to car valet services.
She said: “Quite often we wouldn’t be paid or it was very late. Then we’d find out he’d bought a boat, was out sailing at Cowes Week and treating his crew to a lobster dinner.
“He took me to an ATM to show me his account was at zero. I was handling his receipts and I knew he was buying clothes, a £200 Ralph Lauren jumper.
“He knew I’d see that but he had the cheek to tell me he couldn’t pay me.” Hollie recalled a time when people turned up offering £500 for information about Chappell’s whereabouts.
She said: “They were debt collectors with a High Court writ but Dominic was in Saudi Arabia.
“I came back one day and all that was left in the office was one computer and one photocopier. Eventually it went into administration and I was told I could work for five hours a week. I am still owed a month’s wages.”
Surrey-born Chappell, 49, has twice been made bankrupt and once entered into an voluntary insolvency arrangement.
After the collapse of Island Harbour, small contractors wrote off £885,000.
Hollie – who went on to work as a carer and now has a fourmonth son named Otis – said: “What happened at Island Harbour was the same as BHS, it was just on a smaller scale. ”
When we contacted Chappell he said he could not even remember Hollie but called her claims “ridiculous nonsense”.
He said purchases such as boats and clothes were not put through expenses and nothing to do with Island Harbour, the collapse of which he blamed on Anglo Irish Bank going bust.
He denied ever dodging creditors and said he “believed” his staff had been paid in full.
Asked if he failed to pay Hollie £600 in wages, he said: “To be honest, if she missed out on £600 she missed out on £600. I’m sorry about it but that’s what it is.”