The UK government has launched legal action to recover more than £100m from the company that was awarded two major PPE contracts after Tory MP Michelle Mone recommended it to ministers.
The claim, confirmed by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), is for £122 million paid to the company, PPE Medpro, under a contract to supply 25 million sterile surgical gowns which was awarded in June 2020. The DHSC is also seeking to recover the costs of storing and disposing of the gowns, which were rejected by its officers after an inspection when they arrived at the NHS depot in Daventry.
In December 2020, the company said in a statement issued by a lawyer for its director, Anthony Page, that 210 million gowns and face masks supplied for £80.85 million under another contract had “certainly helped to keep our NHS workers safe.” In fact, gowns have never been used in the NHS. PPE Medpro insists the gowns passed inspection and would “vigorously” defend legal action. There have been no legal issues with the masks.
Last month, The Guardian reported, based on leaked documents compiled by HSBC bank, that £29 million from PPE Medpro profits was paid to an offshore trust whose beneficiaries, according to bank records, were Lady Mone and their three adult children.
Mone’s husband, Isle of Man financier Douglas Barrowman, received £70m for PPE Medpro, at least £65m of which came from the company’s profits on the two government contracts. Barrowman made a number of distributions of that money, including £29m to Mone’s trust, the documents said.
A lawyer for Mone told the Guardian in response: “There are a number of reasons why our client cannot comment on these issues and has no duty to do so.”
A lawyer representing Barrowman and PPE Medpro said an ongoing investigation limited what his clients could say in relation to the Guardian’s report. He added: “At the moment we are also instructed to say that there is a lot of inaccuracy in the representation of the alleged ‘facts’ and some of them are completely wrong.”
A DHSC spokesman confirmed legal action had been taken and the claim registered with the judicial service. “We can confirm that we have commenced legal proceedings in the High Court against PPE Medpro Limited for breach of contract relating to gowns delivered under a contract dated 26 June 2020. We do not comment on matters which are the subject of legal proceedings in course”, he added. said the spokesman.
Mone, 51, and Barrowman, 57, have repeatedly insisted over the past two years that they had “no involvement” in PPE Medpro and “no role” in the process by which the company was awarded its government contracts. The Guardian has previously reported how these claims appear to be at odds with documents which appear to show the pair were secretly involved in the Medpro PPE business, and emails which suggest Mone repeatedly lobbied the government on their behalf.
PPE Medpro said in a statement it would “vigorously” defend legal action, saying its suits “pass quality inspection in China”, and accused the DHSC of a “cynical” effort to get its money back for he had severely outlived his means. ordered PPE. The supply of gowns followed the “successful” supply of face masks under the first contract, the company said.
“When manufactured, the products passed quality inspection in China and then PPE Medpro was paid in full,” he said.
The statement said the DHSC had then asked PPE Medpro to manufacture a further 2 million gowns, but that this contract “never materialised”.
“By the end of 2020, it was clear that the DHSC had over-ordered and … it was clear that the DHSC would never be able to use all the PPE they procured. Consultants were then hired to collect all the contracts and fight the product not because of the quality but because of technical aspects of the contract that were never foreseen at the time of the contract.
“DHSC’s cynical attempt to recover money from suppliers such as PPE Medpro, who acted in good faith and to contract specifications, will be exposed through the civil court process… The case will also show DHSC’s utter incompetence to properly procure and specify PPE during the emergency procurement period.”
The DHSC declined to comment on the statement made by the company. Mone and Barrowman were separately contacted for comment.
PPE Medpro is the subject of an ongoing investigation into possible fraud by the National Crime Agency. In April this year, NCA officers searched several addresses, including the mansion that Mone and Barrowman occupy on the Isle of Man. At the time, lawyers for PPE Medpro declined to comment on the NCA’s investigation.