BILLIONAIRE Covid PPE tycoon Sarah Stoute and her husband Richard enjoyed festive meals at a Caribbean restaurant – where bottles of champagne go for £250 a pop.
They have become regulars there, where treats include lobster and £70 steaks.
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The restaurant is regarded as one of the best in the region and has attracted celebrities.
A source said: “The Stoutes have been here quite a few times.
“The restaurant is the type of place some people come to be seen, and enjoy spending their money.”
Former nurse Sarah, 49, and Richard, 52, have also enjoyed jaunts on their £1million super-yacht, which has been seen cruising around the island over the festive season.
Another source on the island said: “Their boat is very big, even by the lavish standards of billionaires.
“It is the type you buy to flaunt your cash, the type a Russian oligarch might have owned before the sanctions.”
The pair pocketed £2billion in government PPE contracts for medical gowns and masks at the height of the pandemic.
And while enjoying their sun-shine festive break, they made a booking at a restaurant for around 20 guests.
The bar at the restaurant, which can be seen by holidaymakers on the public beach, can cost £5,000 to reserve and Laurent-Perrier and Bollinger champagne are among the favourite tipples.
A source there said: “They all arrived on their boat. They were having a great time.
“There was lots of laughing and joking as they disembarked on to the beach.”
The Stoutes’ show of wealth came as they last week spent a fortune on expensive lawyers in a failed attempt to gag The Sun on Sunday with an injunction.
An islander said: “The Stoutes are recent arrivals but are clearly enjoying their new wealth.
“They seem to have a taste for expensive bars and restaurants.
“On Christmas Day there was a celebration at their new house.
“They get expensive cars to some very swanky places and even a jet- ski to their boat.”
At another top beachside restaurant, which the pair visited on a previous jaunt, treats include a ribeye steak for £170, roasted sea scallops and £200 bottles of wine.
A source said the Stoutes’ gatherings are “sometimes a massive party” and added: “They buy the alcohol when they are there.
“They buy a lot.”
OFFSHORE TAX HAVEN
Workers, beachgoers and neighbours told how the pair frolicked in the sea over Christmas and enjoyed watersports.
Kayaking, jet-skiing, and water-skiing, as well as renting out a banana boat, are just some of the activities they have enjoyed.
The couple have also been out shopping to local stores.
The Stoutes’ company Full Support Healthcare received more than double the amount of any similar business for supplying medical masks and gowns in the pandemic.
Even then, £84.7million of the kit was unused because the Government had too much stock.
During the pandemic the business had sales of £2billion, yet pre-Covid it made a profit of less than £1million.
In the year before the pandemic, Sarah and Richard jointly took £300,000 in dividends out of their 20-year-old parent company.
In 2021, the couple based their company offshore in tax haven Jersey.
Filings at Companies House show the firm had investments of £600,000 and £1million in assets.
They say in 2021 the firm and its immediate parent entity paid out £7,000 in corporation tax, but do not say what they paid HMRC in total.
In 2020, figures show assets were £120,000 and no corporation tax was paid.
Lawyers for the Stoutes — who are the UK’s highest recipient of taxpayers’ cash of the pandemic — said the pair had offshored the company for reasons of privacy.
In a statement, they added: “All taxes have been paid by Full Support Healthcare and Ltd and Group.
“The choice to have the company resident in Jersey was solely to maintain privacy for our clients and their family.
“In addition, Mr and Mrs Stoute are UK tax residents so any dividends and PAYE they received or receive are, and will continue to be, subject to UK tax.”
Mrs Stoute said the firm’s dramatic success during the pandemic had come after she received early warnings, at the end of 2019, about the danger posed by Covid.
Despite having only limited access to funds, she put in huge advance orders for PPE to Chinese suppliers — certain that the British Government would soon need previously unheard of quantities of masks, gloves and overalls.
The Stoutes made their move before prices started to increase.
But the couple have said they are not Covid profiteers — insisting it was all just good business.
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