Pensions regulator had pressed charges after Chappell failed to hand over documents relating to company purchase

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The former owner of BHS, Dominic Chappell, has been found guilty of three charges of failing to provide vital documents to the pensions watchdog.

Chappell, 51, was charged with neglecting or refusing to respond to three section 72 notices demanding he hand over vital documents and information relating to the purchase of the company.

He led the Retail Acquisitions consortium that bought BHS from Sir Philip Green for a nominal £1 in 2015. It subsequently crashed, with 11,000 jobs lost, 13 months later – leaving a pensions black hole of about £571m.

Chappell was found guilty of all three charges after a trial at Brighton magistrates court this week and faces an unlimited fine for failing to comply with the notices.

After six and a half hours of deliberation, district judge William Ashworth said some of the evidence given by Chappell was “not credible”, with some of his explanations “making no sense”.



Ashworth said: “All the requests made were valid and reasonable and all the time frames to fulfil these requests were also reasonable.”



The judge said some of the evidence was “incomprehensible” and Chappell’s excuses for not providing the information were unreliable.

Chappell sat in the dock and did not react as judgment was delivered.

Outside court, Chappell said he would be appealing against the verdict. He said: “As you can imagine, I’m extremely disappointed and annoyed about the outcome. It’s not the one we were looking for.

“I’ve instructed my legal team to put in an immediate application for an appeal on this case. We feel that this case has not been treated fairly and we will look deeply into this.”



A spokeswoman for the Pensions Regulator (TPR) said: “Dominic Chappell failed to provide us with information we had requested in connection with our investigation into the sale and ultimate collapse of BHS, despite numerous requests.

“Anyone who fails to cooperate with our information notices risks getting a criminal record.”

While there have been successful prosecutions brought in the past, including one woman who was tried in her absence, Chappell is the first person to be convicted after denying such an offence at trial, the regulator said.

The regulator had demanded hundreds of documents from Chappell in relation to the £571m pension black hole at BHS just days after the company collapsed in April 2016. It made a second request in May 2016 and a further approach in February 2017.

The regulator, which has a responsibility to safeguard pensions, was seeking to protect the pensions of 19,000 members.

It subsequently agreed a deal with Green that he should pay £363m towards the pension deficit.

Michael Levy, defending, told Brighton magistrates court that Chappell was a “political scapegoat” for the failure of the high street chain. He claimed Chappell had been “set up to fail” and the case against him was a “sham” and a “show trial”.

The court heard that shortly before Chappell bought the company, staff had been seen putting bin bags of documents into an industrial-sized shredder located in the back of the BHS headquarters in London.

Alex Stein, prosecuting, said a “stick and carrot” approach had been used to try to get Chappell to comply with the notices but the actions were “always reasonable” under the parliamentary statute.

He said: “This defendant has refused to provide, to the best of his abilities, responses to the section 72s.

“When you look at all of the evidence as a whole, you get a clear picture of obfuscation on behalf of the defendant.”



The case is not the end of the line for Chappell as the regulator is still seeking money from him to help plug the BHS pension deficit. It is understood to be seeking more than £10m from Chappell.

“Our separate anti-avoidance action against Dominic Chappell continues. TPR’s determinations panel is considering evidence submitted by various parties and is expected to be in a position to issue its written determination notice to affected parties in the coming weeks,” the regulator’s spokeswoman said.

Chappell will be sentenced in Winchester on Friday 19 January.

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