Yahoo News Evidence involving Michelle Mone handed to National Crime Agency amid PPE fraud claims
Evidence involving Baroness Mone has been handed to the National Crime Agency (NCA) as it investigates allegations of PPE fraud.
The evidence is said to include texts and emails from senior officials and at least three ministers concerning the procurement of masks and gowns during the Covid pandemic.
It has emerged as the public battle between the peer and ministers has become increasingly acrimonious.
The NCA investigation into allegations of conspiracy to defraud, fraud by false representation, and bribery, is expected to conclude next year. Lady Mone, 52, and her husband Doug Barrowman have denied all allegations against them.
The Government is also suing PPE Medpro, a company set up by Mr Barrowman, to try and recoup £122 million over an alleged breach of contract concerning personal protective equipment (PPE), which was not used in the NHS because of a claim it did not meet required standards. PPE Medpro has denied the claims.
In a fightback against the allegations, Lady Mone has claimed that “everyone in government knew of my involvement” with the company when she was contacting people during the pandemic in order to secure contracts.
The connection was not declared publicly on the House of Lords register of interests.
Bank accounts were frozen
Lady Mone told the Sunday Times that she is being treated like Pablo Escobar, the Colombian drug lord, after her bank accounts were frozen by the NCA.
“It has been an extremely tough year of pain with frozen accounts.
“Under the Proceeds of Crime Act, I’ve been treated like Pablo Escobar. What happened to innocent until proven guilty?”
The NCA reportedly ordered the banking freeze about 12 months ago to prevent Lady Mone transferring any funds.
Lord Bethell, a health minister during the pandemic, claimed this week that Lady Mone “wasn’t honest” about her financial interests.
“She didn’t explain ‘from the very beginning’ about her financial ‘involvement’... It wasn’t in her register of interests, as you’d expect it.”
A source in the Department of Health backed up the claim, telling The Times: “It is categorically false that she declared everything to the department. I’ve gone back and looked through paperwork.”
However, Lord Bethell has himself been embroiled in controversy after failing to disclose his personal communications and WhatsApp messages from the period.
“You seem to have mysteriously discovered access to your text messages from 2020,” Lady Mone replied to his allegations.
“Now you’ve finally found them, will you be sending them all to the Covid inquiry?”
He said that he has “set out what messages I do and don’t have. I have sent this message and all other relevant messages to the NCA”.
‘Hiding their own failures’
Lady Mone’s spokesman said that there are more than 1,000 individual pieces of correspondence between her, the Cabinet Office, the Department of Health and Michael Gove in relation to the procurement of PPE.
The businesswoman claimed that the Cabinet Office is using the case against her and PPE Medro “to hide their own shocking failures on PPE” and complained that “not a single other company has been litigated against”.
She has also alleged that “a senior civil servant offered to make the NCA investigation into us go away if we paid the Government a sum of money”.
The Department of Health has previously said that it cannot comment on ongoing legal cases.
