Baroness Bra home raided in fraud probe
THE £25million mansion that Tory peer michelle mone shares with her billionaire husband has been raided by fraud probe police investigating contracts to supply medical kit at the start of the pandemic.
The lingerie tycoon is believed to have been present at the palatial property on the isle of man when officers searched it as part of a series of swoops.
Also said to have been targeted are offices in the island’s capital, douglas, where the firm at the centre of the probe – PPE medpro – is based.
documents, computers and other electronic devices were seized, it was reported. The firm is owned by Anthony Page, a business associate of 50-year-old Baroness mone.
it won deals worth £200million to supply PPE early in the Covid crisis after she passed on its details to ministers as part of a controversial ‘VIP lane’. But millions of the surgical gowns it supplied were never used after failing an inspection.
Lady mone – who was later referred to the House of Lords commissioners over a potential breach of the code of conduct for peers – has denied any involvement with the company. She is not accused of any wrongdoing, and no arrests have been made. in Wednesday’s raids officers from the isle of man Constabulary, working with the national Crime Agency (NCA), executed warrants at four addresses on the island. According to The Guardian they included the mansion Lady mone shares with her second husband, fellow Glaswegian douglas Barrowman.
The NCA inquiry is understood to relate to possible fraud offences relating to the PPE contract.
Baroness mone, who founded bra firm Ultimo in 1997 alongside then husband michael mone and was given a peerage in 2015, was approached for comment. Previously her lawyers have insisted she was ‘neither an investor, director or shareholder in any way associated with PPE medpro’ and only took the ‘simple, solitary and brief step’ of referring it to ministers. mr Page declined to comment.
‘Denies involvement with the company’