Two former BHS directors ordered to repay £110m to creditors

Two former bosses of failed department store chain BHS have been ordered to pay £110m to creditors.

Dominic Chappell, the former BHS boss who bought it for £1 from Topshop tycoon Philip Green in 2015, and his former colleague Lennart Henningson must pay up after breaching their corporate duties.

BHS liquidators FRP Advisory brought the case against the couple.

They breached their obligations by continuing their business activities instead of initiating insolvency proceedings.

BHS collapsed eight years ago, resulting in the loss of 11,000 jobs and a pension deficit of £571m.

Sir Philip Green made a cash payment in 2017 to offset the pension fund’s shortfall.

Chappell, a former racing driver, was jailed for six years in 2020 for tax evasion.

He failed to appear in court and the judge ruled against him, stating that there was “no real prospect of defending any of the claims against him”.

Tony Wright, joint liquidator, said: “We are pleased that the court has found these directors liable for almost all of the shortfall suffered by creditors.”

But legal experts warned it could be difficult to recover money from former directors.