Isle of Man businessman Doug Barrowman has condemned the UK government’s High Court victory against his personal protective equipment company as a ‘travesty of justice’.

On Wednesday, Mrs Justice Cockerill handed down her ruling in London, finding against PPE Medpro following a five-week trial.

The UK Government’s Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) sued PPE Medpro in 2022, claiming the company failed to comply with laws requiring 25 million surgical gowns supplied during the Covid pandemic to be sterile.

The judge ordered the firm to repay £122 million plus additional costs and interest.

Mr Barrowman said he was outraged by the decision, accusing the court of delivering ‘a whitewash of the facts’.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, his spokesperson said: ‘Today, a travesty of justice took place following the judgement of Lady Justice Cockerill. She gave the DHSC an establishment win despite the mountain of evidence in court against such a judgement. Her judgement bears little resemblance to what actually took place during the month-long trial, where PPE Medpro convincingly demonstrated that its gowns were sterile.’

The statement added: ‘This judgement is a whitewash of the facts and shows that justice was being seen to be done, where the outcome was always certain for the DHSC and the government. This case was simply too big for the government to lose.’

According to Mr Barrowman’s team, PPE Medpro lost on a ‘technicality’ because it could not conclusively prove a validated sterilisation process had been used, despite having test certificates. They claimed the DHSC did not raise sterilisation as an issue until the trial itself.

The spokesperson said: ‘It makes a mockery of the justice system and should not have been allowed.’

They added that PPE Medpro has since obtained documentation in China which ‘conclusively proves’ the gowns were sterilised. Other claims against the company were dropped, they said, while the DHSC’s failure to mitigate losses by selling the gowns as non-sterile was downplayed.

The trial heard the gowns, for which the DHSC paid £122 million, were rejected after inspection in September 2020 and never used in the NHS. They were labelled with a CE mark, denoting compliance with European standards, but no authorised quality assurance body had certified their safety or sterility.

No issues were raised with facemasks supplied by the company.

Paul Stanley KC, for the DHSC, argued the gowns did not comply with the law. PPE Medpro’s barrister, Charles Samek KC, said the gowns were properly sterilised in China and that the DHSC had agreed to the process before awarding the contract.

The £122m gowns contract, alongside an £80.85m deal for facemasks, was awarded after Baroness Mone contacted then Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove in May 2020.

The two contracts, worth £203m, became among the most controversial of the government’s fast-tracked pandemic procurement scheme.

Mr Barrowman’s spokesperson said: ‘This whole case has been an attempt to divert attention away from the government and its monumental overspend on PPE and subsequent write-off of £10 billion in unusable PPE. They have made PPE Medpro and its principal backer Doug Barrowman, and by implication his wife, Baroness Michelle Mone, the scapegoats for this disgraceful waste of taxpayers’ money.’

Baroness Mone rose to prominence through her lingerie brand Ultimo before being appointed to the House of Lords by David Cameron in 2015. She and Mr Barrowman, who married at Peel Cathedral in 2020, initially denied involvement in PPE Medpro but confirmed in 2023 that he owned the company. They still have a home in St Mark’s.

The High Court case is separate to a National Crime Agency investigation into whether the couple committed criminal offences during procurement. They deny any wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, an Isle of Man company is among the applicants seeking to appoint administrators to PPE Medpro.

An application was lodged on Tuesday, according to the Mirror. One of the applicants is Angelo (PTC) Ltd, based on St George’s Street in Douglas.

Company records show its officers are Voirrey Coole, a former PPE Medpro director, and Timothy Eve. Both have Isle of Man addresses.

PPE Medpro now has £666,000 in assets after spending £4.3m defending the High Court case.