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Baroness Bra spends fortune on yacht refit – then sells it for £10m

By Guy Walters

A YACHT linked to former bra tycoon and Tory peer Michelle Mone has been put up for sale for £10.25 million – months after a multi-million-pound refit.

The 130ft vessel, Lady M, featured regularly as a glamorous backdrop on her Instagram page.

It has four guest cabins and room for six crew. Everything from the cream interiors and teak decking to the hull and navigational equipment was refurbished in May.

The sale comes after a turbulent year for the 50-year-old and her billionaire husband Doug Barrowman. In April, the National Crime Agency began investigating PPE Medpro, a firm with connections to Mr Barrowman, after it was awarded two contracts worth £200 million to supply surgical gowns during the pandemic in 2020. They were never used after failing an inspection.

The NCA is likely to interview Baroness Mone after she recommended the firm to Ministers. Four properties linked to it, including a £25million Isle of Man home the pair owned, were raided by the NCA. The couple deny wrongdoing.

The yacht, said to be ‘phenomenal’ by sales agent Cecil Wright, is linked to PPE Medpro. It is owned by a firm registered on the Isle of Man called LM Yachts, whose director is Anthony Page. The employee of Knox House Trust, part of Mr Barrowman’s Isle of Man-based Knox Group, also owns PPE Medpro.

In March, AML Tax (UK) Ltd, also part of Knox Group, was fined £150,000 for withholding records needed to calculate tax bills.

The Charity Commission recently opened a compliance case into the Barrowman Foundation. Set up by Mr Barrowman in 2017 – with his wife as a trustee – it donates to the Prince’s Trust, but has not lodged any donations in its accounts.

Baroness Mone recently paid £50,000 to settle a libel claim from an ex-friend of Indian heritage who accused her of racism for calling him ‘a waste of a man’s white skin’.

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