A group of sunbathers flashed their bikini-clad bottoms and gave the two-finger salute to Sir Philip Green, as the former BHS owner’s superyacht docked in Malta.

He arrived in the Grand Harbour just hours before MPs released a damming report on the collapse of BHS, in which they accused Green of “systematically plundering” the retail business, that once employed some 11,000 people.

The Daily Mail reported that the women – who chose to remain anonymous – wanted to protest at Green’s “disgusting” behaviour.

“We arrived and we heard that this boat had come into the harbour. We saw the ship and thought how disgusting it is,” one of the women said. “It’s obscene what he’s getting away with. It’s a magnificent ship, but it’s not right. We were coming back following a day out on the boat and thought we’d make a little gesture towards it. I don’t think there was any reaction from the boat, but from the position we were in we couldn’t see for sure.”

MPs on the work and pensions select committee and the business, innovation and skills committee said on Monday that the “tragedy” of BHS was the “unacceptable face of capitalism” and raised questions about how the governance of private companies and their pension funds should be regulated.

Green, whose Arcadia Group owns Topshop and Miss Selfridge, purchased BHS in 2000 but sold it for £1 in 2015 to Dominic Chappell, a thrice-bankrupt former racing driver with no retail experience. It fell into administration in April this year, costing around 11,000 jobs and threatening the income of some 20,000 pensioners.

“Green’s reputation as the king of retail lies in the ruins of BHS. His family took out of BHS and Arcadia a fortune beyond the dreams of avarice and he’s still to make good his boast of ‘fixing’ the pension fund,” work and pensions committee chairman Frank Field said. “What kind of man is it who can count his fortune in billions but does not know what decent behaviour is?”

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said: “If Philip Green won’t do the right thing by the members of the BHS pension fund then he should have his knighthood removed. And if he says he can’t afford it then he should sell up his extra yacht.”

The newly-purchased superyacht – reportedly Philip Green’s third – is the length of a football pitch and is believed to sleep 12 guests and 28 crew. Called the Lionheart, it is said to include a swimming pool, a hot tub, three lifts, a beauty salon, a barbecue and a fleet of jet-skis.

It has now departed Malta and is currently moored off the Greek island of Skopelos.