The claims were made in the latest joint session of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) committee which is investigating the circumstances surrounding the collapse of BHS earlier this year and the company’s pension deficit.

Hitchcock told MPs that he asked to meet Chappell and said, with hindsight, he believed the BHS management team had been ‘duped’.  At the time he was brought in Hitchcock, who was previously CEO of retailer Beales and finance director at Moss Brothers, said the BHS turnaround plan agreed with Chappell ‘had legs’ and was a way of bringing in additional finance.

The plan involved an inter company loan from BHS parent group Arcadia, plus re-negotiating property leases with landlords. However, it depended on RAL providing the expertise in property renegotiations and the ability to raise external finance, as the team did not have specific retail experience, but said the company had a ‘crack team’ with experts in both these two areas.

Hitchcock said: ‘there was sufficient value in the BHS property that, if leveraged correctly, it would give BHS a fair better chance of turning around that Dominic Chappell and his so-called experts were able to deliver.’

Hitchcock said that ‘within two weeks’ he realised Chappell was a ‘Premier League liar’ and a ‘Sunday pub league retailer’.

The interim CFO said that BHS landlords ‘all bought into the turnaround plan’, but were not prepared to reduce rents. Hitchcock said the plan was to have a property-led CVA before Christmas 2015, but claimed RAL and Chappell ignored this recommendation and did not opt for a CVA until early 2016.

Hitchcock told MPs that the board then discovered RAL were working on ‘Project Herald’, and had spent £350,000 on advisory fees with Grant Thornton in relation to this. He claimed the aim of the project was to remove some assets from BHS, primarily the international and online businesses, and move these outside the group.

‘This was completely unacceptable – the turnaround plan required the assets in order to raise finance and when you are desperate for finance and need to win support from suppliers, you do not do this. There was no benefit to BHS and the motivation was for Chappell to have a financial life boat – so long as there was no CVA,’ Hitchcock said.

Asked by Richard Fuller MP on the committee whether it was ‘usual for companies to have secret plans to hive off assets’, Hitchcock described the action as ‘typical of Dominic Chappell’s ownership – so much was happening above us.’

‘The motivation was not what expected from a 90% shareholder. It did not smell right,’ he said.

Hitchcock reported that within two weeks of him joining the company he put in place action to change the BHS  bank mandate so that cash could not be removed by RAL signatories solely. Hitchcock was also critical of governance at BHS once RAL took over, saying the auditors had raised concerns.

‘Dominic Chappell’s uncle was chair of the board and his former best friend was chief executive so along with Dominic that meant the board was too close to friends and family,’ he said.

Darren Topp, chief executive BHS gave evidence that when directors uncovered a payment of more than £1m to an unknown BHS company in Sweden, he challenged Chappell after it was finally discovered to have gone to a RAL director with Swedish connections.

After he described the move as ‘theft’, Chappell twice threatened to kill him and subsequently wanted to table a motion at the next board meeting to have him removed as a director. The money was subsequently returned, less £50,000 which Chappell said was down to fees.

Topp also said BHS management had been alarmed by the discovery via a pensions regulator section 72 notice that Chappell had sold one of the BHS properties and taken £7m of the £32m sale price out of the business, suggesting this showed he had ‘fingers in the till.’

Grant Thornton has been approached for comment. The committee session is ongoing.