A FORMER Conservative peer under investigation for her alleged role in a £148 million Covid equipment scandal was allowed to continue collecting an estimated £15,000 a week in rent.

A court amended a previous order to freeze £75m of British assets belonging to Baroness Michelle Mone and her husband after one of his companies received £122m in government contracts for unsuitable medical gowns.

Baroness Mone and Doug Barrowman will now be allowed to keep the estimated £15,000-a-week in rent from a £25m mansion in Belgravia, central London, as the inquiry continues.

The National Crime Agency opened an investigation into the Covid-era deal, which supplied 25 million defective surgical gowns to the government, which Mr Barrowman’s firm imported from China.

A court first ordered the couple’s assets to be frozen two years ago, while the NCA looked into the deal with PPE Medpro.

Another one of Mr Barrowman’s businesses, which is based in the Isle of Man and offers tax avoidance schemes, owns the £9.25m Grade-II listed home in Belgravia.

Recorder of Westminster Judge Tony Baumgartner approved of the amendment to the asset freeze in a secret hearing at Southwark Crown Court, The Times reported.

Mr Barrowman had received at least £65m from PPE Medpro and transferred £29m to a trust set up for Baroness Mone and her family.

The company went into administration one day before a High Court ruling which ordered it to pay the government £148m. It was also reported that PPE Medpro owed £39m in tax arrears.

Then a Tory peer, Baroness Mone used a government “VIP fast lane” during the pandemic to recommend her husband’s company be awarded contracts to supply personal protective equipment.