Winner of PPE jackpot buys third home — and one for parents
Gabriel Pogrund and James Orr
Sunday November 29 2020, 12.01am, The Sunday Times
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A former Tory councillor who bought a country estate after being awarded £276m in government contracts for personal protective equipment (PPE) has added a holiday home and a house for his parents to his property portfolio.
Steve Dechan is the owner of Platform-14, which specialises in medical devices for people with chronic pain. The Gloucestershire firm recorded a loss of almost £500,000 last year.
Dechan, 52, was awarded a £120m contract to supply masks in March, followed one in June worth £156m to supply gowns and masks. In neither case was there a competitive tender.
Last week The Sunday Times revealed that Dechan used some of the profits to buy a £1.5m grade II listed property in the Cotswolds, and pay himself £500,000.
Dechan has since stated that in the course of this year he has also bought a £250,000 holiday home in Cornwall and a £50,000 property for his parents in Exeter, and rented a new warehouse for his company.
In response to inquiries, Dechan said yesterday that he had done “very, very well out of the pandemic”.
However, he defended the work he had done, saying he had delivered 120 million face shields and 15 million gowns in record time, and that some of the money would help “millions of people in pain”.
He has bought a stake in BioWave, an American company that manufactures pain relief devices.
Dechan provided evidence that he had not won his contracts through a VIP channel for business people with connections to politicians.
He added that he had been “thrown to the wolves” by the government, which had refused to thank him publicly for his work.
Public criticism of the government’s procurement practices has been growing, after the National Audit Office said last week that a historic failure to build up PPE stockpiles had cost taxpayers about £10bn.
Dechan’s first contract was the third most lucrative PPE deal awarded to date.
Last night Dechan said he had been abused since the disclosure of the personal wealth he had amassed during the pandemic, and a brick had been thrown through his window.
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