Former British Home Stores owner Dominic Chappell must pay £87,000 for refusing to hand pension watchdogs information about the company’s ill-fated pension scheme.
Chappell, 51, says he cannot pay the £50,000 and £37,000 court costs that make up the bill.
He was found guilty of three offences of failing to disclose details of the BHS pension scheme to The Pension Regulator at Barkingside Magistrates Court, East London, last month.
Chappell returned to the court for sentencing and was quizzed about his finances.
He said he had an income of about £2,700-£3,000 a month as a consultant to a cosmetics company.
Luxury car and private school fees
He listed outgoings of almost £9,000 made up of £3,800 a month rent on his Dorset home; £2,666 a month leasing a 2017 Range Rover; and £2,500 a month school fees for his two children, aged eight and 12, which he claimed was in arrears.
“I’m an entrepreneur,” he said. “It’s the nature of the business. There are boom times and slack times. This is a slack period where I have huge amounts of cash flooding out of the door in relation to legal fees.
“I have no way of paying a large fine now, but I could speak to people to borrow a loan.”
“I have no funds as it stands. The belief is I made millions out of BHS, but the collapse left me almost penniless.”
Order to pay
District judge Gary Lucie said: “Chappell is not being sentenced in any way for the collapse of BHS or the pension funds, just the failure of him to comply with demands over the pension funds.”
“There was a complete lack of remorse on Mr Chappell’s part. The fine should therefore reflect that. In my view there has not been full and frank disclosure of his means. I’m not impressed by the lack of detail.”
The judge suggested Chappell, a three-time bankrupt, should pay £2,500 to pay off the fine and costs.
Chappell also faces a demand for £10 million towards the BHS pension fund from the regulator, while he told the court he had also spent more than £250,000 on legal fees since the firm collapsed.
He bought the chain of stores for £1 from Sir Phillip Green, who agreed to pay £363 million towards the pension deficit.
