Ex-BHS owner Chappell fined £124k for breaking pension law
Former BHS owner Dominic Chappell was on Friday found guilty of failing to hand over documents to The Pensions Regulator (TPR) and fined more than £124,000.
Former bankrupt Chappell, who bought the high street chain off retail tycoon Philip Green for £1 in 2015, was appealing against an original sentence handed down earlier this year. He was defending himself in court as he claimed he could not afford a lawyer.
BHS collapsed in 2016 with the loss of 11,000 jobs and a pension fund deficit of £571m. Green, who came in for scathing criticism after it was revealed he took large dividends from the firm, eventually yielded to public pressure and struck a deal with the regulator to pay £363m towards the pension scheme.
TPR said Chappell failed to provide information it had required him to supply as part of its investigation into the sale and collapse of the retail chain. He also failed to hand over information about a possible unauthorised disclosure of restricted material.
Ordering Chappell to pay a £50,000 fine, £73,900 costs and a £170 victim surcharge, Judge Christine Henson QC said that his appeal was “completely without merit” and that he had shown a “complete lack of remorse” for his behaviour.
“It was persistent. It was deliberate. It was a blatant refusal to comply with the requests. His refusal to comply with the Section 72 requests caused significant delay to TPR’s task. It made their work significantly more difficult,” she said
TPR executive director of frontline negotiation said Chappell "consistently refused to provide the information about the sale of BHS that we demanded, despite the courts being clear that he should provide it".
“His repeated claims that he does not have to give us what we have been seeking have now been rejected by two different courts.
TPR’s separate anti-avoidance action against Chappell over the BHS pension schemes is continuing.