Former BHS owner fined £87,000 by investigators over collapse of retailer
Former British Home Stores (BHS) owner Dominic Chappell has been ordered to pay £87,170 for failing to provide information to pensions investigators looking into the retailer’s collapse.
District Judge Gary Lucie handed three-times bankrupt Mr Chappell a £50,000 fine and ordered him to pay £37,670 in court costs at Barkingside Magistrates’ Court in London on Friday.
Judge Lucie said that there had been a “complete lack of remorse on Mr Chappell’s part”. “Even when asked questions about his means he gave a self-serving and uninvited diatribe about the case,” the judge said. “His counsel Mr Levy said he was a ‘victim in all this’ – in my mind that cannot be further from the truth.”
Mr Chappell had not fully disclosed his financial situation and had failed to tell prosecutors about the property he owns in Dorset, Judge Lucie said.
Mr Chappell told the court that he earned between £2,700 and £3,000 per month and had “huge amounts of cash flooding out the door“
The judge rejected that account and said Mr Chappell had “extensive outgoings” and must be accruing more income than he claimed.
Mr Chappell had earlier told the court he was “financially crippled” and would have to take out a loan to pay any fine. The “great perception of me having millions from BHS” is not true, Mr Chappell said. “I’m in arrears on a number of bills at the moment – I can’t afford to pay,” he added.
The court heard that Mr Chappell pays £3,800 a month in rent for his Dorset home, around £2,500 per month for private school fees and £32,000 a year to rent a Range Rover.
The Pensions Regulator has issued Mr Chappell with a £10m contribution notice. Mr Chappell has been in the spotlight since BHS went into administration in April 2016, leaving a £571m pension black hole.
Sir Philip Green, who sold the retailer to Mr Chappell for just £1 around a year before its demise, has agreed to pay £363m towards funding the deficit.