'Premier league liar' Dominic Chappell 'threatened to kill BHS chief executive'

He added: "I question his intelligence, he wasn't a retailer. The motive was purely for his own benefit. There is a big smell test which I adopt in a lot of these situations, and it just did not smell right."

Read more: BHS owner Dominic Chappell was a 'premier league liar with fingers in the till', hearing told

The chain's chief executive Darren Topp alleged Mr Chappell threatened to kill him when he questioned him over a £1.5 million transfer of BHS money to Sweden.

"If you kick off about it, I'll come down there and kill you," Mr Topp said Mr Chappell told him.

The explosive claims were made during heated exchanges in front of the Commons Business and Pensions Committees, which are investigating events surrounding the retailer's collapse.

Mr Topp said Mr Chappell's assurances on buying BHS "unravelled and, rather than putting money in, he had his fingers in the till".

He claimed Mr Chappell received a £1.8 million payment from the sale of BHS and £7 million from the sale of the retailer's offices.

Mr Hitchcock said he was forced to change the company's bank mandate to "stop any chance of money flowing outside of the business".

Read more: 800 Scottish jobs to go as BHS goes into liquidation

Despite widespread criticism of Sir Philip for selling the firm to Mr Chappell, the committee was told the Topshop billionaire assured BHS management that the appropriate due diligence had been carried out.

Last week administrators to the department store chain called time on trying to find a buyer, resulting in the loss of up to 11,000 jobs and leaving behind a £571 million pensions black hole.

Mr Topp said Sir Philip made it clear when he sold BHS that the responsibility for the pension deficit fell to a combination of himself, Arcadia and BHS.

Mr Hitchcock added that the BHS pension fund did not need to go into the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) as there were solutions available.

The committee also heard that Sir Philip's Arcadia retail empire provided short-term financing to prop up BHS after he sold it to Mr Chappell.

Mr Topp added: "We got consultation from Grant Thornton to work on what a pension proposal would look like that was better than the PPF for the members."

He said that he, Mr Topp and Mr Hitchcock came up with Project Vera as an alternative to the PPF proposal.

Read more: Scottish BHS staff break their silence over their bitter betrayal

Mr Topp also said Mr Chappell was on a boat in the Bahamas when BHS's administration was announced. Mr Chappell had claimed he was undergoing eye surgery at the time.

For his part, Mr Chappell said BHS would have been "saveable", had Sir Philip assisted the firm.

"I think our company was saveable and I think, had Sir Philip had assisted us, we could have saved BHS. We were in the throes of beginning a turnaround proper after a very successful property CVA and we were moving forward," he said.

He added that Sir Philip effectively continued to run BHS even after the sale.

He claimed that Arcadia's position as a secured creditor was used as a "stick" with which to beat him and, ultimately, it was Sir Philip who took the decision to put BHS into administration.

He also accused administrator Duff & Phelps of being "heavily conflicted" because of its close connection with Sir Philip, describing the firm as the billionaire's "pony".

Asked whether he thought Sir Philip was a successful retailer, Mr Chappell said he had been very successful at raising "a lot of money from businesses and taking huge sums out of them".

Mr Chappell claimed Sir Philip "genuinely thought" BHS would fail, but sold it nevertheless, adding that the billionaire would have liquidated BHS if he had not sold it.

He also said he is looking at launching a legal suit against Arcadia and Sir Philip over a BHS property sale by the tycoon to his stepson. He claimed that BHS missed out on £3.5 million because of it.

Mr Chappell said his initial talks with Sir Philip outlined that BHS would pass over "debt free, pension free and with the normalised running capital within the business".

The former bankrupt bemoaned chronic underinvestment during Sir Philip's tenure, saying shop staff were taking it upon themselves to maintain the store estate.

When asked if he thought Sir Philip had "set him up", Mr Chappell added: "I think Philip genuinely thought that we would fail. But he sold it to us nevertheless.

"I believe firmly that he was very hostile about us doing the property CVA and believed we couldn't get it done and that the company would collapse."

He added: "Michael Hitchcock, who was very damning about me in the previous round you had here, came in and made a lot of noise about, 'I will deal with the landlords, I will do this, I will do that, I will sort out the funding'. He is a man of many words and of very little delivery.

"He met with the landlords and not a single landlord went with his grand plan of restructure."

Asked if he had profited out of his ownership of BHS, Mr Chappell said: "Yes, I have made a profit out of this, but I racked up considerable fees."

He also claimed that Sir Philip effectively blocked a rescue attempt by Sports Direct boss Mike Ashley, who appeared before the committee on Tuesday.

"Mike Ashley was going to save the business, but Sir Philip Green was screaming down the phone, saying he didn't want to get involved with Mike Ashley."

He claimed that on hearing of the potential deal, Sir Philip called in a £35 million loan, tipping the company into administration.

Mr Chappell claimed he did everything in his power to save BHS, including offering Mr Ashley his shares, but his attempts were "rail-roaded" by Sir Philip.

He accused Sir Philip of having "control issues", adding that he became angered whenever pensions were mentioned.

He said Sir Philip went from "zero to incredibly angry very quickly" when the subject of pensions came up.

Mr Chappell claimed BHS was "held to ransom" by the Pensions Regulator and Sir Philip.

He said he attempted to meet the Pensions Minister three times, only for her to cancel on the grounds of being conflicted.

He also said Sir Philip would not allow him to meet the Pensions Regulator before the acquisition, threatening to call the deal off if he did.

Hitting back at Mr Topp, he claimed that BHS's trading under the chief executive had deteriorated so badly that he had appointed head hunters to find a new boss and finance director.

Mr Chappell denied that he is going bankrupt again, after it was revealed that he has taken out a £150,000 short-term personal loan, half of which he has yet to pay back.

He also described the £1.5 million taken out of BHS as a "sideshow" in the "grand scheme of things".

He admitted he was in the Bahamas when administrators were called in to BHS, although he claimed he was there on business before having an eye operation.

He concluded by offering an apology for the chain's collapse, adding: "I am very upset that there are 11,000 people directly and a number of thousand indirectly who have lost their jobs. It's a travesty that that has happened. That is an apology.

"As a majority shareholder I must stand forward and say we were part of the downfall of BHS."