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Peter Murrell, the former SNP chief executive and estranged husband of Nicola Sturgeon, has been unveiled in court as having misappropriated more than £400,000 from the party through various means including charge card expenditures, bank transfers, and fraudulent invoices. Over a period spanning 12 years, Murrell used these funds to purchase an array of personal items such as jewellery, cosmetics, two vehicles, and a motorhome. Having held the chief executive role for over two decades, the 61-year-old pleaded guilty last week and faces a significant prison sentence at his sentencing scheduled for 23 June.
During the court proceedings, it was revealed that Murrell utilised not only his own SNP charge card but also those of two additional staff members to make unauthorized purchases. The money was drawn from the party’s accounts, which mainly consisted of membership fees, donations, and bequests left to the SNP in wills. Despite having direct access to the party’s accounting system, many of the transactions were entered by a staff member working under Murrell’s guidance. His initial arrest took place in April 2023, shortly after his resignation amid disagreements regarding party membership figures.
Police searches of Murrell and Sturgeon’s shared residence in Glasgow, alongside the SNP headquarters in Edinburgh, uncovered several items listed in the indictment, although the majority of the over 1,000 alleged stolen items were not recovered. Found possessions included a custom wooden library, a robotic lawnmower, a bathroom vanity unit, a silver wine coaster, and fitted mats. A luxury motorhome, valued at £124,550 and seized from Murrell’s mother’s home in Dunfermline, was a particularly notable find. Purchased in late 2020 with an SNP credit card and paid off mainly with direct transfers from the party’s funds, the vehicle was reportedly used only minimally, covering just four miles since delivery.
The court also detailed various other dubious transactions: Murrell made a direct transfer of £16,498 from party funds to purchase a Volkswagen Golf in early 2016, later trading it in for an £81,000 Jaguar I-PACE in 2019, with the remainder of the balance paid through fake expenses and invoices. Additional revelations included fraudulent recording of expensive watches as party merchandise, mislabeling purchases of a robotic lawnmower as legal fees, and hundreds of Amazon purchases mostly delivered to his home and SNP offices. Murrell’s lawyer indicated he intends to repay the stolen sum. Meanwhile, Nicola Sturgeon has denied any knowledge of or involvement in her husband’s illegal activities. She resigned as First Minister in March 2023 and was briefly arrested during the investigation but was told last year that she was no longer considered a suspect.
In response to the developments, First Minister John Swinney, who served as Sturgeon’s deputy during much of the period in question, expressed his profound disappointment, describing the case as a “colossal breach of trust.” Though acknowledging that the party’s financial systems were generally robust, Swinney conceded there were shortcomings in certain controls and announced improvements have been made since. Despite calls for a parliamentary inquiry, he has resisted such measures, arguing that a detailed police investigation should suffice. Earlier concerns about the SNP’s financial governance surfaced in 2021 when senior officials, including a former treasurer, resigned over lack of access to critical financial records. Both Sturgeon and Swinney have denied suppressing those concerns
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