UK National Crime Agency says it is ‘not afraid’ of PPE Medpro’s lawyers

The National Crime Agency has said it is “not afraid” of lawyers acting for PPE Medpro, the company run by Conservative Michelle Mone’s husband Doug Barrowman, and is conducting an investigation into it “as quickly as we can”.

The NCA is conducting a long-running investigation into suspected criminal offences committed in PPE Medpro’s procurement of £203m worth of government contracts for the supply of personal protective equipment during the Covid pandemic.

The contracts were awarded through the government’s “VIP lane”, which gave high priority to companies with political connections. The NCA said a full file had “not yet” been passed to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) regarding possible charges, but said discussions were ongoing.

Speaking at a press conference, Rob Jones, the agency’s chief operating officer, said: “There are always discussions with the CPS on complex matters such as this, but the full submission of the file to the CPS has not yet been made.”

When asked if the NCA was afraid of PPE Medpro’s lawyers, Jones said: “No. We’re not afraid of the drug lords’ lawyers in Colombia, so believe me, we’re not afraid of this one either.”

Jones said they are moving forward with the investigation “as quickly as we can.” “We have put a lot of resources into this case and we will do whatever we need to do to move it forward so that a decision can be made on the case. It is an inherently complex case and that takes time.”

Assets held by Mone and Barrowman, worth around £75 million, were frozen or seized under a court order obtained by the CPS in December last year.

Jones said people should not infer anything from the more than three-year period the investigation into the case has taken, saying other cases of similar complexity would have taken “much longer”.

When asked how many employees were assigned to the case and whether it was, for example, 20 or five, Jones replied that it was “certainly more than five,” adding: “We are working on that case as a priority within the agency. We will wrap it up as quickly as possible.”

Mone admitted last year that she had repeatedly lied to the media denied any involvement with PPE Medpro. In the same media interviews, Mone and Barrowman adamantly denied any criminal wrongdoing.

Their lawyer declined to comment.