PPE fraud squad raid mansion of Lady Mone
Former lingerie tycoon Michelle Mone and her billionaire husband’s home has been raided by police investigating a personal protective equipment (PPE) company.
The potential fraud investigation by the National Crime Agency is into PPE Medpro, a firm handed two government contracts worth £200 million at the start of the Covid pandemic.
Glasgow-born Tory peer Lady Mone has denied any involvement with the company, which is based on the Isle of Man. However, her lawyers have said she referred PPE Medpro to the government and the firm was placed in a high-priority lane.
PPE Medpro is owned by Anthony Page, a business associate of Mone. The firm’s first government contract, worth £80.85m to supply face masks, was awarded in late May 2020. The second deal of £122m – to supply surgical gowns – was awarded in June 2020.
Wednesday’s raids saw officers from the Isle of Man Constabulary, working with the National Crime Agency (NCA), execute warrants at four addresses on the island, including the mansion where Mone lives with husband Douglas Barrowman. There were no arrests and Mone and Barrowman are not accused of any wrongdoing.
Officers also swooped on Knox House, the building where PPE Medpro is registered, and its offices in central London.
Mone, who founded bra firm Ultimo in 1997 alongside then husband Michael Mone, was given a peerage in 2015.
Her lawyers have insisted she was not 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.