Baroness Mone is one of the individuals accused of making millions from PPE Medpro

Baroness Michelle Mone and her husband Doug Barrowman are among those charged with trying to recover some of the millions owed to the government by their collapsed company, PPE Medpro, the BBC understands.

Government £122m plus interest was awarded PPE from Medpro last year, after the court found the company breached a contract to supply sterile surgical gowns during the outbreak.

Interpath Advisors’ joint liquidators filed lawsuits against six individuals and five companies associated with the company after PPE Medpro entered liquidation proceedings.

Mone and Barrowman are available for comment.

PPE Medpro was established in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic as the government struggled to provide protective equipment to protect health workers at the height of the pandemic.

After being advised by Baroness Mone, who sits as a Conservative peer in the House of Lords, he won the first government contract to supply masks in the so-called ‘VIP Lane’.

However, in the year In late 2022, the government sued the company, claiming that the medical gowns it supplied did not meet relevant healthcare standards.

Last year, the High Court ruled in favor of the government that PPE Medpro had failed to ensure that the surgical gowns used by NHS staff underwent a proven sterilization process.

While the government won the case, it was not immediately clear how it would return the money. The company had less than £1m on its own balance sheet. and entered the liquid In December 2025

But then health secretary Wes Streeting accused PPE Medpro of “putting NHS staff and patients at risk with substandard kit while lining their own pockets with taxpayers’ money at a time of national crisis”.

He vowed to pursue the company “everything we can” to recover the money.

Barrowman and Mohn were not directors of PPE Medpro – and had no long-term connection with the company.

However, in the year In 2023, Barrowman confirmed in a BBC interview that he was the last beneficial owner of the company.

In the same interview, Mone admitted that she was a beneficiary of a trust that received some profits from PPE Medpro.

The list of those charged includes four former directors of PPE Medpro, including Arthur Lancaster, an accountant and associate of Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. Lancaster has been reached for comment.

News of the case was first reported by tax expert Dan Needle.

Last year, HMRC filed a £39m claim against PPE Medpro, which it said the company owed.

The Department of Health and Social Care said it was up to appointed enforcers to get the money back, and it was not appropriate for ministers to interfere – but it was clear the government expected strong action. Interpath declined to comment.

The National Crime Agency is conducting a separate criminal investigation into PPE Medpro.