MICHELLE Mone has said she has “no plans to flee the British Isles and live in Honduras” in a statement issued after her husband was cleared of fraud by a Spanish court.

On Thursday, reports said Doug Barrowman had been acquitted of all charges by three judges in the northern Spanish city of Santander.

Barrowman had been facing tax fraud charges linked to a factory purchase in 2008, with prosecutors focused on a £5.35 million payment from the now-defunct B3 Cable Solutions Spain to a UK firm called Axis Ventura.

READ MORE: Michelle Mone admits she lied and stands to benefit from PPE contract

Barrowman and five of his associates were alleged to have taken sums for consultancy services which were inflated or never provided.

They were all cleared of all charges, and Mone has issued a statement in response.

The baroness – who is under investigation in the UK on separate allegations linked to a firm given Covid contracts through the Tories’ unlawful VIP lane mid-pandemic – insisted she was “not building or buying a £50m superyacht” and not planning on running to Honduras.

In full, the statement issued by Mone (below) read: “Doug Barrowman Statement — Spanish Tax Fraud Trial.

“You will most likely have read about the acquittal of myself and five other co-defendants yesterday in the Spanish courts. We were alleged to have committed tax fraud and misappropriation of corporate funds relating to our own company, B3 Spain.

“The reality is, there never was a case to answer and my own role in this company was that of a passive investor with a 19.7% shareholding. I visited the company once and was not involved in any aspect of the business or its day to day running.

“My lawyers told me that the worst that could happen would be a fine.

“Imprisonment was unlikely given that I was not a director of the company. Most tax cases in Spain settle with a fine rather than imprisonment.

The National: POLITICS

"Cast your mind back to January this year when the British press had me down as guilty and heading to a Spanish jail cell for the next five years. The usual sensationalist headlines and front pages along with a glamorous picture of my wife thrown in for good measure. There is a recurring pattern here, which also applies to the ongoing PPE dispute with the British government.

“‘Slate them down as guilty and don't let the truth get in the way of a good story’ has been the modus operandi of our media since December 2020. The reality is that we dispute any claims that our goods were faulty.

“I would like to take this opportunity now to reiterate that we are being held out as the scapegoats for £10bn of government waste and overspend in PPE procurement. So far, the British press have lapped up this government spun narrative each and every time — hook, line and sinker.

“We hope that this Spanish acquittal verdict may cause the British public to think again and question the other plain untruths that are written about us on a regular basis.

“Ps... I wish to make it clear that I am not building or buying a £50m superyacht as recently claimed in the Daily Mail. Also, for the avoidance of doubt, we have no plans to flee the country and live in Honduras. We are very happy living and working in the British Isles.”

In January, reports said Mone and Barrowman had had around £75m of assets linked to them hit by a court order.

Prosecutors have frozen or otherwise restrained the assets, which include nine properties in Glasgow’s Park Circus, a London townhouse, an Isle of Man estate and 15 bank accounts.

In December, Mone admitted to having lied to the press about whether or not she stood to gain from a PPE deal given to a firm she had recommended to UK Government ministers.