The businessman who bought BHS for £1 was a “premier league liar” who had his “fingers in the till”, MPs were told today. The attack on Dominic Chappell was made at a parliamentary hearing by executives running BHS when he bought the chain and as it went on to hit the rocks.
Former financial adviser Michael Hitchcock and chief executive Darren Topp were giving evidence to MPs investigating the retailer’s collapse.
Mr Hitchcock, brought in to the firm in July last year but who resigned in March, was asked his impression of former bankrupt Mr Chappell.
He said: “Like, I think, many others throughout this process I think I was duped. I think the technical term is a mythomaniac. The lay person’s term is he was a premier league liar and a Sunday pub league retailer at best.
“That’s great in hindsight, but at the time... [Mr Chappell appeared to have a] highly credible turnaround plan that certainly had legs.
“It needed a lot of things going right, but with cash behind the business there was no reason why this business could not turn itself around.”
Mr Hitchcock later said he came to believe Mr Chappell and his team were “not fit for purpose”. He added: “I fundamentally don’t think he understood what was going on. I question his intelligence. He wasn’t a retailer.
“The motive as I see it, and I have the benefit of hindsight, was purely for his own benefit.”
Mr Topp, who has been at BHS for seven years, said that at the time of acquisition Mr Chappell claimed to be a “turnaround expert” who had just completed a “significant and successful” rescue of a Spanish oil facility. The CEO said he later learned in the press the Spanish story “wasn’t all it seems”.
He explained that Mr Chappell promised to put £10 million of his own money into BHS and bring a “crack team” of property and financial experts.
He said: “Unfortunately as time progressed that unravelled in terms of that promise and it became clear towards the end that, rather than putting money in, he’d got his fingers in the till.”
Mr Topp said he brought in Mr Hitchcock as an adviser when he said he discovered that Mr Chappell, personally or through his company Retail Acquisitions, had been paid £1.8 million through the sale of BHS.
He also discovered Retail Acquisitions had taken proceeds of a property sale and that equity put into BHS came from a loan, not Mr Chappell’s “own pocket”.
Mr Topp also said that on one occasion when he protested at an attempt to move £1.5 million out of BHS, Mr Chappell threatened to kill him. The CEO said he had told Mr Chappell “that’s theft”. And “between expletives” Mr Chappell told him: “If you kick off about it, I’ll come down there and kill you.”
Mr Chappell and Retail Acquisitions executives were also due to give evidence today. Mr Chappell has previously denied any wrongdoing.@JoeWatts_
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