The Daily Telegraph - Saturday
Mone and husband’s bank accounts frozen
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
PROPERTY and bank accounts linked to Baroness Mone and her husband – totalling around £75 million – have been frozen as the National Crime Agency (NCA) investigates allegations of fraud against them.
The Conservative peer and her husband, Doug Barrowman, are the subject of an NCA probe into the sale of personal protective equipment to the Government by PPE Medpro, which is owned by a consortium led by Mr Barrowman.
PPE Medpro was awarded £200 million of contracts after its sales bid was fasttracked through a so-called VIP lane during the Covid pandemic, but the government later sued the firm, claiming £122 million of PPE was defective. The company insists that everything it supplied met the specifications in the contracts issued by the Government. Both the civil and the criminal cases are ongoing.
understands that the Crown Prosecution Service wanted to freeze Mr Barrowman’s entire worldwide assets. After months of negotiations, the CPS reduced its demands to around £75 million, enabling the financier to operate other businesses that are not linked to the PPE controversy.
Homes on the Isle of Man and in London’s Belgravia and 15 high-end bank accounts have all been included in the court order, meaning the couple cannot sell the property or use the accounts. Lady Mone and Mr Barrowman are the only suppliers being pursued through the courts.
None of the other 176 disputed PPE contracts has resulted in legal action by the government and PPE Medpro supplied less than 1.5 per cent of the PPE stock bought by the government.
The NCA began its investigation in May 2021 and is looking into allegations of conspiracy to defraud, fraud by false representation and bribery, which the couple vehemently deny.