UNITED KINGDOM: The business that was given two significant PPE contracts after being recommended to MPs by Conservative peer Michelle Mone has been sued by the UK government to recoup more than £100 million.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has acknowledged the claim for the total £122 million paid to PPE Medpro under a contract awarded in June 2020 for the company to supply 25 million sterile surgical gowns.
The gowns were rejected by the DHSC’s inspectors following an inspection when they arrived at the NHS depot in Daventry. Now, the organization is attempting to recoup the costs associated with storing and discarding them.
In a statement released in December 2020 by a lawyer for its director Anthony Page, the company claimed that the gowns and 210 million face masks provided under a separate deal for £80.85 million had “undoubtedly helped keep our NHS workers safe.”
The gowns have never actually been used in the NHS. PPE Medpro claims the robes were approved for use and that it will “rigorously” defend the lawsuit. The face masks have not been the subject of any legal disputes.
According to data obtained by the Guardian last month and assembled by HSBC bank, £29 million from PPE Medpro earnings was transferred to an offshore trust whose beneficiaries were Lady Mone and her three adult children, according to bank records.
Over the previous two years, Mone, 51, and Barrowman, 57, have asserted time and time again that they had no “involvement” in PPE Medpro and “no role” in the procedure by which the business received its government contracts.
Asserting that its gowns “passed quality inspection in China,” PPE Medpro stated that it would “rigorously” defend the legal action. The company also accused the DHSC of making a “cynical” attempt to get its money back because it had significantly overordered PPE.
The corporation claimed that the delivery of gowns came after the “successful” delivery of face masks under the first contract.
The DHSC refuses to respond to inquiries about the company’s claims. We reached out to Mone and Barrowman separately for comments.
The National Crime Agency is currently looking into possible fraud using PPE Medpro. NCA officers searched a number of addresses in April of this year, including the mansion Mone and Barrowman live in on the Isle of Man. PPE Medpro’s attorneys at the time declined to comment on the NCA probe.
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