A former Dick Smith director has unleashed on the banks and the company’s chief executive.

Jamie Tomlinson joined the board of Dick Smith in April last year, and has given evidence this week to the NSW Supreme Court’s public examination of the collapse of the company.

 Mr Tomlinson described Dick Smith as a “business that did not need to fail”.

“It was not insolvent, it was not in breach of accounting standards,” he said.

Dick Smith CEO Nick Abboud and the banks placed the retailer into receivership earlier this year, with over $400 million in debts, about $140 million of which was owed to NAB and HSBC.

Mr Tomlinson said the banks acted as they did because they did not trust Dick Smith’s management.

The former director said this stemmed from “an issue of competence” with Mr Abboud.

“Nick Abboud is a good retailer but was out of his depth as CEO,” he told the court.

“It's not about deceit or illegality, just incompetence.”

Mr Tomlinson was against Mr Abboud’s appointment from the start,  and even emailed Dick Smith chairman Rob Murray to say “Nick has no credibility with suppliers, with management or with me”.

“Nick knows he needs to move on,” Mr Murray replied.

Mr Tomlinson said he lost faith after a series of surprising management decisions.

They included debt facilities with banks being organised without board approval, significant rises in inventory levels that management struggled to deal with, and issues with the quality of the inventory management bought.

Mr Abboud oversaw a change in strategy to push private label goods.

“It was a significant leap of faith with no consumer testing to suggest it would work,” Mr Tomlinson said.

Tomlinson told the court he personally would not buy a Dick Smith branded television.

Mr Tomlinson told the court he suspected management was “gilding the lily” in its reporting of the state of Dick Smith's finances.

The former director testified that overall, Dick smith failed because of poor strategy, poor leadership and a lack of trust between key players.

Hearings will resume on September 26.