Peter Murrell jailed for five years after embezzling £400,000 from SNP

Estranged husband of Nicola Sturgeon is sentenced for stealing from party over 12-year period

Peter Murrell has been sentenced to five years and three months in jail after he admitted embezzling more than £400,000 from the Scottish National party while he was its chief executive.

Murrell stole the money over a 12-year period, splashing out on a luxury motorhome, a Jaguar SUV, Montblanc pens and luxury watches, a set of Lalique salt and pepper grinders and 2kg of coffee granules.

The now estranged husband of the former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, Murrell covered up his theft of £400,310.65 by entering false accounting codes in the SNP’s accounts and submitting falsified invoices.

In the high court in Edinburgh, Lord Young told Murrell he was guilty of a “calculated crime of dishonesty”, which involved “a significant breach of trust” affecting his former party and party donors.

Handing down the sentence, which was backdated to Murrell’s guilty plea on 25 May, the judge told Murrell he wanted to send a clear warning to others that these crimes carried significant punishments.

“Let me make it clear to you, one factor in the sentence I impose today will be to act as a deterrent to any senior officials in other large organisations who might be tempted to abuse their position in the way you did,” Young said.

If Murrell had pleaded not guilty and had gone to trial, he would have faced seven years in jail.

Despite a lengthy criminal social work report based on interviews with Murrell, Young said he could find no satisfactory explanation for the crimes. Murrell, who is now in Dumfries prison, had told the author of the report that he had found it impossible to stop his embezzlement until he was arrested.

John Scullion KC, Murrell’s defence lawyer, told the court Murrell took full responsibility for his crimes and knew time in prison was “entirely deserved”. He felt “guilt and remorse” and had been “overwhelmed by feelings of embarrassment and shame”.

Since his arrest, Murrell had become isolated, ostracised by his friends and former colleagues, and had become “a figure of public ridicule”. There was no prospect of him reoffending, Scullion said. “His humiliation will endure beyond any sentence his lordship imposes, and may prove lifelong. His future beyond custody is uncertain but presently seems bleak and solitary.”

Scullion confirmed that Murrell had enough money of his own to repay the £400,310.65 he stole from the SNP under a criminal confiscation order, but Young postponed a hearing on those proceedings until mid-September to give the prosecution and defence further time to decide on the final figure.

Under the Proceedings of Crime Act, the state can apply interest and other costs, including any benefits to the offender, at a set tariff.

It is thought Murrell’s theft was obscured at the time by the SNP’s heavy spending between 2010 and 2022.

The SNP spending at headquarters level, excluding the millions the party spent at Westminster, totalled £58m during those 12 years. Murrell’s theft was equivalent to 0.69% of that amount.

During a police interview in April 2024 Murrell was challenged about the “negative impact” his theft had had on the SNP’s cash reserves, which were so low in one year he loaned the party £107,000.

“Part of the reason they’re low is your feeding off of them,” a detective said. “What would you say to these people, those members? What are you going to say when they ask you about it?” Murrell twice said “no comment”.

Party sources confirmed that Murrell had been previously accused of theft. In the late 1980s, he allegedly stole about £500 while working for former party leader Alex Salmond, then an MP. Salmond repaid the sum and hushed it up, but is said to have never fully trusted Murrell. One senior source recalls Salmond telling confidants: “He lies, you know.”

This was not disclosed to John Swinney, who appointed Murrell as chief executive in his first stint as party leader in 2001; Murrell and he had been childhood friends, members of the same Boys Brigade company in west Edinburgh and in the same SNP branch.

The police investigation has also raised fresh questions about Sturgeon’s insistence she fully cooperated with the investigation, after she was arrested as a suspect in June 2023. She was later cleared by police.

Officers involved in Operation Branchform said she failed to answer any questions during her interview, as was her right. However, her written statement to police did not answer all the questions detectives wanted to put to her.

Police said that ultimately those unanswered questions were not pertinent to Murrell’s prosecution. Aamer Anwar, Sturgeon’s lawyer, said it was “beyond outrageous” that she was being asked to respond to anonymous police briefings.

“It is clear following a two-year gold-plated and robust investigation, Ms Sturgeon was neither charged, prosecuted nor convicted of any offence,” Anwar said.