Baroness Michelle Mone and her husband, Doug Barrowman, are among a group of people now being sued personally as fraudsters trying to recover millions owed to the taxpayer by her failed company, PPE Medpro.
This move shows a sharp rise in the proverbial will symbolize the cost of procurement during the pandemic. Having secured a £122m judgment and interest from the company last year, the government is watching as joint venture firm Interpath Advisory pursues those behind it. The High Court ruling found that PPE Medpro breached its contract to supply disposable surgical gowns during the Covid-19 crisis.
Interpath launched a lawsuit against six people and five companies linked to the company, after PPE Medpro was put into liquidation. Mone and Barrowman have been contacted for comment.
PPE Medpro was established in 2020 as Whitehall tries to protect the protective equipment of frontline health workers during the outbreak. It won its first government contract to supply masks through the infamous “VIP route”, following the recommendation of Baroness Mone, who sat in the House of Lords as a Conservative peer. The fast track, which is used by politically connected suppliers, has come under heavy criticism from the Commons Public Accounts Committee and has become a symbol of how billions were spent under pressure.
However, by the end of 2022, the government had sued the company, saying that the medical clothes provided did not meet the appropriate healthcare standards. Last year the High Court found favor with the government, ruling that PPE Medpro had failed to prove that its surgical gowns, which were intended for NHS workers, carried out a proven sterilization process.
Winning the case was one thing; to get more money. The company itself held less than £1m on its balance sheet and closed in December 2025. Wes Streeting, then health secretary, accused PPE Medpro of putting “NHS staff and patients at risk with substandard kit while lining their pockets with taxpayers' money at a time of national crisis”, and promised to pursue “something” we found.
For business owners looking from the sidelines, personal size is a significant factor. Barrowman and Mone have never been directors of PPE Medpro, and for a long time denied any connection with it at all. That position was revealed in 2023, when Barrowman confirmed in a BBC interview that he was the company's most beneficial owner, and Mone admitted that he had benefited from a trust that had received some of the company's profits.
The defendants include four directors of PPE Medpro, among them Arthur Lancaster, an accountant and business associate of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. Lancaster has been contacted for comment. News of this case was first reported by tax expert Dan Neidle.
It's not just lenders who are circling. Last year it emerged that HMRC had also lodged a £39m claim against PPE Medpro for tax it says the company owes.
The Department of Health and the Department of Community Development said that the return of funds is a matter for those who have been appointed for the sale of funds, so it would not be appropriate for ministers to intervene, although he added that the government has made it clear that it expects strict measures to be taken. Interpath declined to comment. Separately, the National Crime Agency is continuing a criminal investigation into PPE Medpro.
In the SME community, the case is quickly becoming a point of reference for the limits of the business veil. When a company loses cash and is liquidated, the stockholders keep their real teeth, and the most beneficial owners can get the spotlight on them.
