MICHELLE Mone’s husband is facing the threat of more than five years in prison if he is found guilty of fraud charges levied against him in Spain.
Doug Barrowman, who has been married to the Scottish Tory peer since 2020, has been charged with crimes including corporate tax evasion, The Mirror reports.
He is one of seven British businessmen Spanish authorities want to put behind bars for a business deal all were involved in 2008.
Spanish authorities believe a payment was made fraudulently to allow the firm to avoid paying around half a million euros in tax (£436,000).
Prosecutors in the Cantabria allege the invoice was “fraudulent” and have demand they pay the Spanish Treasury all the money back as well as €6 million which was taken out of another firm, in which Barrowman was involved, which later went bust.
Barrowman, originally from Glasgow, has strenuously denied the claims and his lawyers told The Mirror he would be "vigorously” contesting the charges in court.
He is due to stand trial in May next year and has previously been cleared of administrative wrongdoing in a civil court in relation to the same matter, the paper reports.
The prosecution’s case centres around a payment of €6m from now-defunct Spanish company B3 Cable Solutions Spain to UK firm Axis Ventura in 2008. Axis Ventura had raised funds to buy B3, a cable factory near Santander, which went bust in 2012 resulting in the loss of 200 jobs.
Barrowman was a founder of Axis but left four months before the payment – however a court document seen by The Mirror shows he admitted to having negotiated the deal for the payment and that he benefitted from the commissions paid to Axis.
His lawyers have said the reason he was involved is because of his shares in B3 Cable Solutions.
Prosecutors have confirmed they will be seeking jail time for the seven businessmen if they can prove the cases against them next year.
It comes after Mone earlier this month stepped away from the House of Lords to attempt to clear her name after she was alleged to have secretly profited from a Government PPE contract, for which she lobbied, during the pandemic.
Maria Pilar Jimenez Bados, head of the regional Cantabria Prosecution Service, said: “In the B3 Cable case seven people have been accused of a crime of misappropriation and a crime against the Treasury.
“For the first crime prosecutors are seeking a prison sentence of three years in prison and a nine-month fine to be paid at a rate of €100 (£86) a day. For the tax crime the prison sentences prosecutors are seeking vary from three years to two years and six months.
“The indictment also calls for them to reimburse B3 Cable to the tune of €6.3m (£5.5m) and the Spanish Treasury €508,590 (£443,902).”
Barrowman’s lawyers said in a statement to the Mirror: “The services in question were not ‘fictitious’, they were performed by numerous employees and consultants over a nine-month period in relation to acquiring Spain’s then largest copper cable manufacturing plant.
“The resulting invoice was specifically disclosed in the financial statements audited by Ernst & Young and the amount deducted for the corporation tax, not personal tax, was as advised by Garrigues, a top law firm in Spain.
“It is also important to note that there have been two prior civil judgments related to the disputed invoice and the insolvency of B3 Cable Solutions Spain.
“Both found in favour of the defendants, which include Mr Barrowman, who has been brought into these proceedings, not as a director of any relevant entity, but instead by virtue of a minority shareholding in B3 Cable Solutions Spain.
“This action will be very vigorously contested in the Spanish Courts by Mr Barrowman and others.”
