Steve Dechan, a former Conservative councillor, who was awarded £276m in government contracts for personal protective equipment (PPE), has traded his modest home for a £1.5m, 17th-century Cotswolds mansion with 100 acres of land.
Steve Dechan is the owner of Platform-14, a Gloucestershire firm that specialises in medical devices for people with chronic pain. It recorded a loss of almost £500,000 last year.
In April, Dechan was awarded a £120m contract to supply masks. He later received a further £156m to provide gowns and masks. Neither contract went through a competitive tender process. Instead, Dechan established direct contact with the DHSC at the start of the first wave, offering the equipment via a British contact in Hong Kong, who, in turn, used a company in southern China.
Full story in The Times, 22 November 2020
