Michelle Mone interviewed under caution by detectives over £200m PPE scandal
Baroness Mone and her businessman husband Doug Barrowman have been interviewed under caution by detectives investigating them for fraud, the Mirror can reveal.
The National Crime Agency has been investigating their role in the PPE Medpro scandal, since May 2021. Mone referred the company to Government contacts before it won £200m in Covid contracts.
During a 70-minute film released on Sunday - which was funded by PPE Medpro - it was revealed that NCA officers had interviewed the couple once. The Mirror understands that interview was carried out under caution and the pair were not arrested.
It comes after their homes in London and the Isle of Man were raided by detectives in April 2022. An NCA spokesperson has said: “The NCA opened an investigation in May 2021 into suspected criminal offences committed in the procurement of PPE contracts by PPE Medpro."
Mone with husband Doug Barrowman (PA)
Mone in 2021 (PA)Mone is suspected of conspiracy to defraud, fraud by false representation and bribery. She denies all the allegations and insists she has done nothing wrong.
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In the film, made by former detective Mark Williams-Thomas, Mone admits she regrets misleading the Mirror three years ago about her role in the PPE Medpro scandal. When we first revealed links between Mone and the newly formed company, her spokesperson told us: “Baroness Mone has no comment as she has no role or involvement in PPE Medpro.”
She now says: “I made an error in what I said to the press. I regret not saying straight away, ‘Yes, I am involved. And the Government knew I was involved’.” She explains: “I was a conduit. I was a liaison person. I brought it all together.”
Her husband, businessman Doug Barrowman, said: “It is absurd, when you see the volume of communication that goes on, to say that she was anything other than involved, and that has always been accepted by us.”
It comes after the first court hearing took place in the legal battle between the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) and PPE Medpro this week over a £122m contract for 25 million gowns which the Government says were not sterile. DHSC is seeking compensation for the cost of the gowns plus costs but PPE Medpro denies the claims and is fighting the case.
In December, Mone’s spokesperson announced she was taking a leave of absence from the House of Lords “in order to clear her name of the allegations that have been unjustly levelled against her”.
Mone is facing a separate investigation by the Lords Commissioner for Standards into whether she breached the conduct rules by failing to register an interest in the company and by lobbying for it to be awarded government contracts. She has denied wrongdoing.
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