Michelle Mone's billionaire hubby in court - and could face huge prison sentence

30 January 2024 , 10:55

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Doug Barrowman at Court today (Image: EDU URDANGARAY/SOLARPIX)

Businessman Doug Barrowman has arrived at his trial in Spain this morning on charges including corporate tax evasion.

There was no sign of his wife Baroness Mone at the court in Santander on the first day of a six-day trial which could see the Scot jailed for up to five and a half years if found guilty. It comes as Mr Barrowman and Baroness Mone, 52, are separately under investigation by the UK's National Crime Agency for alleged fraud, related to the awarding of more than £200m in VIP lane contracts in 2020 to PPE Medpro, a company they were both closely linked to.

The Spanish charges relate to an allegedly "fraudulent" €6.3m (£5m) invoice from 58-year-old Barrowman and the six co-accused Brits allegedly benefitted from. Prosecutors allege it was created to evade tax and take millions of pounds out of a Spanish company B3 Cable Solutions and into their pockets via a UK company Axis Ventura in July 2008. B3 went bankrupt four years later, costing 200 workers at a cable factory near Santander their jobs. All seven deny the charges and an earlier civil court case absolved the Scottish businessman and his partners of any administrative wrongdoing.

British billionaire businessman Doug Barrowman and husband of Tory MP Michelle Mone in court today (EDU URDANGARAY/SOLARPIX)

But parallel criminal investigation led to a judge ruling there was sufficient evidence for a trial. Mr Barrowman was an Axis founder member but ceased to be a part of Axis four months before the payment. But a court document seen by the Mirror states Barrowman has admitted he was "one of the negotiators" of the deal and that he received some benefits of the commissions paid to Axis. He was also a shareholder in B3. Prosecutors say the invoice was created “to hide a partner payment” and “defraud the Spanish Treasury” out of more than half a million euros when it was partly used to offset corporation tax. The corporation tax deduction was just over €1.6m (£1.3m) and the rest of the €6.3m (£5m) declared as donations, according to court documents.

The couple were involved in PPE contracts (BBC)

Barrowman’s lawyers have insisted the invoice was fully declared, following legal advice, and that Barrowman and his associates will be “very vigorously contesting” the allegations in court. But prosecution chiefs confirmed they were seeking prison sentences for the seven men. Maria Pilar Jimenez Bados, the Santander-based head of the regional Cantabria Prosecution Service, said last year: “In the B3 Cable case seven people have been accused of a crime of misappropriation and a crime against the Treasury. For the first crime, prosecutors are seeking a prison sentence of three years in prison and a nine-month fine to be paid at a rate of €100 (£86). For the tax crime the prison sentences prosecutors are seeking vary from three years to two years and six months in line with their alleged implication.”

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Barrowman arriving at court today in Spain (EDU URDANGARAY/SOLARPIX)

She added: “The indictment also calls for them to reimburse B3 Cable to the tune of €6.3m (£5m) and the Spanish Treasury €508,590 (£437,500).” Barrowman’s lawyers said in a statement to the Mirror: “The services in question were not ‘fictitious; they were performed by numerous employees and consultants over a 9-month period in relation to acquiring Spain’s then largest copper cable manufacturing plant.

“The resulting invoice was specifically disclosed in the financial statements audited by Ernst & Young and the amount deducted for the corporation tax, not personal tax, was as advised by Garrigues, a top law firm in Spain.
“It is also important to note that there have been two prior civil judgments related to the disputed invoice and the insolvency of B3 Cable Solutions Spain. Both found in favour of the defendants, which include Mr Barrowman, who has been brought into these proceedings, not as a director of any relevant entity, but instead by virtue of a minority shareholding in B3 Cable Solutions Spain. This action will be very vigorously contested in the Spanish Courts by Mr Barrowman and others.”
Meanwhile, around £75m of assets linked to Barrowman and his wife, Tory peer Baroness Mone, have been frozen or restrained by court order, it emerged last week.

No 4 Chester Square, London which is linked to Michelle Mone and her husband Doug Barrowman (The Daily Mirror)

The court order obtained by the Financial Times covers a string of assets including a six-bedroom Belgravia townhouse, a country estate on the Isle of Man and nine properties in Glasgow, owned through offshore companies. It also covers 15 accounts at upmarket banks Coutts, Hoares and Goldman Sachs. The court order, issued in December, blocks the pair from selling some assets and places restrictions on others. It followed an application by the Crown Prosecution Service under the Proceeds of Crime Act and was agreed to by Mone and Barrowman.

The pair deny any wrongdoing and their spokesman said: “This comes as a result of a consensual process during which negotiations took place with the CPS. It allows the wider businesses and assets of the Barrowman family to operate normally and free from any restrictions or uncertainties. Doug and Michelle did not contest the application and were happy to offer up these assets, which means they can begin the task of proving their innocence more quickly. Mr Barrowman finds it deplorable that private matters such as this are being conducted in the public realm via leaks from government departments and the CPS.”

The Department for Health is suing PPE Medpro for more than £130m for gowns it says were unsterile and can’t be used in the NHS. PPE Medpro is fighting the claims. Baroness Mone has admitted she regrets lying to the Mirror about her links to PPE Medpro but insists she and her husband have done nothing wrong. They accept that £65 million in profits from PPE Medpro were transferred to trusts and accounts connected to Mr Barrowman and that Baroness Mone and her children stand to benefit.

Last month, PPE Medpro funded a 70-minute documentary released on YouTube and the couple appeared on Laura Kuenssberg’s prime-time BBC politics show, complaining they had been made “scapegoats” for the Government’s wider failings on PPE.

Gerard Couzens