BHS: Ex-directors must pay at least £18m over chain’s collapse

FRP Advisory, the company acting as liquidator to BHS, brought the case against the directors on behalf of creditors owed money following the retailer’s collapse. These include the government’s Pension Protection Fund.

Claims faced by Dominic Chappell will be considered at a separate hearing this month.

The disgraced former entrepreneur was jailed for six years in 2020 for tax evasion.

A court heard he failed to pay £584,000 in tax on the £2.2m of income he received after buying BHS. It was also claimed that he used the money to buy two yachts, a Bentley and a holiday in the Bahamas.

According to a 2016, Parliamentary Select Committee hearing, the collapse of BHS “created many losers” but also “winners”.

Along with those who lost their jobs, around 20,000 current and future pensioners faced “substantial cuts to their entitlements”.

But it said “many of those closest to the decisions that led to the collapse of BHS walked away greatly enriched despite the company’s failure”.

FRP said it had been working to claw back money owed to creditors and made “very substantial recoveries” since 2016.