A FIRM linked to bra tycoon Michelle Mone must pay back £121million after losing a court battle over dodgy Covid kits.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) brought the case – claiming PPE Medpro provided 25million “faulty”, non-sterile gowns.
InstagramA company linked to Michelle Mone has lost a High Court battle[/caption]
The company, a consortium led by Mone’s husband, businessman Doug Barrowman, was awarded the government contract after she recommended it to ministers.
The High Court today ruled the gowns did not comply with the requirement of having a validated process to demonstrate sterility.
PPE Medpro has now been ordered to pay £121.9m by 4pm on October 15 after breaching the contract.
Both Mone and Barrowman denied wrongdoing – with the underwear mogul yesterday claiming she was a “scapegoat”.
But it was later revealed that she was the “source of referral” for the firm getting a place on the so-called “VIP lane” for supplying PPE for the NHS.
Reading a summary of her ruling today, Mrs Justice Cockerill said the contract was a “complex document” but found that PPE Medpro “has breached” it.
She said the DHSC was “entitled to the price of the gowns as damages” as “the gowns could not be used as sterile gowns”.
But the judge ruled the Government was not entitled to the costs of storing the gowns, which amounted to an additional £8,648,691.
In a post on X yesterday, Baroness Mone said she and Barrowman had been “deliberately scapegoated and vilified” in a campaign to “distract from catastrophic mismanagement of PPE procurement”.
She claimed the case “was never about gowns or money” and said that before the trial, PPE Medpro offered to replace the gowns and then offered cash sums to settle the case, which were rejected.
She said: “Instead, the DHSC chose to spend a staggering £5 million of taxpayers’ money pursuing litigation against a company they knew had no funds.”
In court documents from May this year, the DHSC said it paid PPE Medpro £121,999,219.20 in the summer of 2020 and rejected the gowns in December that year.
It told the company to repay the money, but this has not happened, with the gowns still in storage and unable to be used.
In written submissions for the trial in June and July, Paul Stanley KC, for the DHSC, said that the “initial contact with Medpro came through Baroness Mone”, with discussions about the contract then going through one of the company’s directors, Anthony Page.
Baroness Mone remained “active throughout” the negotiations, Mr Stanley said, with the peer stating Mr Barrowman had “years of experience in manufacturing, procurement and management of supply chains”.
But he told the court Baroness Mone’s communications were “not part of this case”, which was “simply about compliance”.
He said: “The department does not allege anything improper happened, and we are not concerned with any profits made by anybody.”
Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who has been leading work within government to claw back money lost during the Covid pandemic, welcomed the judgment today.
She said: “We want our money back. We are getting our money back.
“And it will go where it belongs – in our schools, NHS and communities.”
GettyThe company, a consortium led by Mone’s husband, businessman Doug Barrowman, was awarded the £122m contract[/caption]
PAMone had denied any wrongdoing[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
