Ex-BHS owner Dominic Chappell ordered to pay £50m for role in chain's collapse

Yesterday, the High Court ordered Dominic Chappell to pay at least £50 million to cover losses racked up by BHS before its collapse in 2016.

Liquidators sued directors Dominic Chappell, Dominic Chandler and Lennart Henningson, accusing them out to self-fund. Last month, a court found Dominic Chandler and Lennart Henningson liable for wrongful trading, misfeasance trading and misfeasance over their management of the High Street chain.

Yesterday, it was Chappell's time to face the music. Mr Justice Leech said Chappell has agreed to purchase BHS without “any prospect” of obtaining working capital to meet its day-to-day financial needs.

Leech added that the businessman then took the “opportunity to plunder the BHS Group as and when he could”.

During Tuesday’s court hearing, the judge said Chappell “should make the payments” set out in a draft order.

A copy of the order, seen by the Financial Times, shows the sums include £21.5 million for a wrongful trading claim, £17.5 million for breach of fiduciary duty, plus costs and interest, totalling at least £50 million. He has also been ordered to make a separate payment for a misfeasance trading claim, with the amount to be set in the near future.

BHS made headlines when it fell into administration with a billion pounds worth of trading liabilities and pension debts in 2016. This came after retail tycoon Sir Philip Green sold the struggling business to Dominic Chappell for £1 in March 2015.

Chappell was recently released from prison in November 2023 after he was jailed for evading tax on his £2.2 million income after purchasing BHS. He avoided paying approximately £600,000 in taxes.

At the time of his conviction, the disgraced businessman blamed Sir Phillip Green for misleading him over the BHS deal.