The former Tory peer and her husband had £75million of assets frozen by a court order two years ago as Britain’s version of the FBI investigated a deal to supply PPE
Disgraced Baroness Michelle Mone is being allowed to keep an estimated £15,000-a-week rent from a mansion covered by a freezing order, it has emerged.
The ex-Tory peer and her husband had £75million of assets frozen by a court order two years ago as Britain’s version of the FBI investigated a deal to supply PPE. But the order has reportedly been amended to allow them to keep rental proceeds from a £25 million property while the deal is continued to be probed.
The mansion, in Belgravia, central London, is owned by an Isle of Man-based firm which is part of the business empire of 54-year-old Mone’s husband, Doug Barrowman, 60. The company paid £9.25 million for the Grade-II listed property in December 2020.
READ MORE: Baroness Michelle Mone-linked firm PPE Medpro wound up over failing to pay £150mREAD MORE: Billions of pounds lost to Covid fraud and error under Tories ‘beyond recovery’
Planning permission was given for a refurbishment of the Belgravia property including excavating a basement to create a cinema room and spa. The property had been on the market for £25million.
The amendment to the freezing order, seen by The Times, was approved by Judge Tony Baumgartner, the Recorder of Westminster, during what was reported to be a secret hearing at Southwark Crown Court. The judge stated: “Any rental income from this property is not restrained and there is no restriction on the use to which this income may be put.”
PPE Medpro, a consortium run by Mr Barrowman, was handed a £122million government contract to supply personal protective equipment during the pandemic. But, in October, a High Court judge ordered the company to pay back the money after being found to have breached the contract.
Baroness Mone and Mr Barrowman have denied wrongdoing and have not faced any charges.
PPE Medpro, said to owe the Department of Health a total of £148million, was placed into liquidation at the Insolvency and Companies Court last month. Separately, the firm is said to owe HMRC £39million. In October, Mone called the High Court court judgment “shocking but all too predictable”, adding it was “nothing less than an Establishment win for the Government in a case that was too big for them to lose”.
