The man who bought British Homes Stores (BHS) from Sir Phillip Green for £1 (one pound) has been ordered by a court to repay the administrators at least £50m over its collapse.
Dominic Chappell, who was jailed for tax evasion back in 2020, was found by the High Court on Tuesday to be liable for repayments sought by BHS liquidators, according to the Financial Times.
Anthony Wright and Geoffrey Rowley of FRP Advisory Trading, the joint liquidators of the once beloved high street retailer BHS, brought the claims against Chappell and several former directors.
Last month the High Court handed down a landmark ruling against Chappell, Lennart Hennington, and Dominic Chandler, who were named as defendants in this lawsuit; however, it was noted that Chappell did not participate in the trial.
The court found that the directors’ actions breached the threshold for wrongful trading, and in so doing, the judge handed down one of the largest ‘wrongful trading awards’ as he ordered them to contribute £6.5m each to the company’s assets.
Chappell was missing due to ill health, he was also recalled to jail in March over breaching licence conditions.
The parties were back in court this week, where, Mr Justice Leech said Chappell had agreed to purchase BHS without “any prospect” of obtaining working capital to meet its day-to-day financial needs. He then took the “opportunity to plunder the BHS Group as and when he could”.
In an order seen by the FT, he was requested to make the payments including £21.5m for a wrongful trading claim, £17.5m for breach of fiduciary duty, plus costs and interest, totalling at least £50m.
It was detailed that Chappell said he had “no legal counsel due to lack of funds”.