Sports Direct chief charged over USC redundancies

Sports Direct chief executive David Forsey has been charged with a criminal offence following the collapse of fashion retailer USC.

He is alleged to have broken rules about notifying authorities ahead of laying off workers at a warehouse.

Sports Direct declined to comment.

The government's Insolvency Service said: "We can confirm that criminal proceedings have been commenced against David Michael Forsey."

"He is charged with an offence contrary to section 194 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992. We will not be commenting until the criminal proceedings have been concluded," said the Insolvency Service.

Chesterfield Magistrates Court is due to hear the case on 14 October and the maximum penalty for the offence is £5,000.

Earlier this year, Parliament investigated how Sports Direct laid off 83 staff at the USC distribution depot in South Ayrshire.

Almost immediately after it went into administration, the fashion retailer was bought by another part of Sports Direct, through a so-called pre-pack administration. It is now trading again, but with less debt, according to the committee, which met in March.

Keith Hellawell, the company's chairman, told the Parliamentary committee he and the board had not known anything about the collapse of USC until the day before it folded.

But, he said, Mr Forsey had begun "consulting" with administrators Duff and Phelps as early as 14 November. Dr Hellawell insisted the firm "didn't want" USC to fold.

Workers were given even less notice, 15 minutes, before they heard they had lost their jobs, the committee was told.