Man, 46, arrested in probe into Michelle Mone-linked company PPE Medpro released under investigation
14 June 2024, 17:24
A 46 year-old man, arrested as part of an investigation into PPE Medpro, a company that was awarded large government contacts to supply protective equipment during the Covid pandemic, has been released under investigation.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
The National Crime Agency kept him in overnight for questioning after he was detained at his home in Barnet on Wednesday morning.
He’d been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit fraud and of attempting to pervert the course of justice.
The firm, which is linked to Conservative peer Michelle Mone, is being looked at over contracts it was awarded during the pandemic.
PPE Medpro secured two contracts worth £203m to supply PPE in the early months of the pandemic.
Read more: Man, 46, arrested in probe into Michelle Mone-linked company PPE Medpro Read more: Teenage neo-Nazi who planned attack on synagogue jailed for eight years
The consortium, led by Doug Barrowman, was awarded Government contracts worth more than £200 million to supply personal protective equipment after Baroness Michelle Mone recommended it to ministers.
Baroness Mone, 52, and her husband Doug Barrowman, 59, have faced controversy over the so-called "VIP lane" contracts granted to some suppliers during the coronavirus pandemic.
Mone and Barrowman have both denied the allegations against them and say the gowns were supplied in accordance with the contract.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has since issued breach of contract proceedings over the 2020 deal on the supply of gowns.
