LONDON – A British High Court judge ruled Wednesday that a company linked to an underwear tycoon must repay the government more than 121 million pounds ($163 million) for breaching a contract to supply 25 million surgical gowns during the coronavirus pandemic.

Justice Sara Cockerill found that PPE Medpro had “breached the contract” and that the Department of Health and Social Care was “entitled to the price of the gowns as damages,” though not to the cost of storing the gowns.

The judge said “the gowns could not be used as sterile gowns.”

PPE Medpro, which was established as the pandemic erupted in the spring of 2020, was a consortium led by Doug Barrowman, the husband of Michelle Mone, who had made her fortune though her lingerie brand Ultimo.

The consortium was awarded the lucrative

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