The former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell has been jailed for five years and three months after he admitted embezzling more than £400,000 from the party over 12 years.
Murrell, the estranged husband of former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, pleaded guilty last month to embezzling £400,310.65 between 12 August 2010 and 19 October 2022.
He was remanded in custody and returned to the High Court in Edinburgh on June 2 when the prosecution told how he stole the money which he used to buy hundreds of items including luxury goods, jewellery, cosmetics, two cars and a motorhome.
Today, as Murrell stood before the court again, the Presiding Judge Judge Lord Young imposed the sentence saying it should be a deterrent to others.
He added he would have handed him a sentence of seven years but discounted that to five years three months because of his guilty plea.
He told Murrell he had committed a “calculated crime of dishonesty”, with a “large number of fraudulent acts over a 12-month period while you were chief executive officer of the SNP”
He said the offending increased in frequency and amount over time.
“You found yourself unable to stop this offending, and it was only the detection of the crime that brought it to an end," he added noting the contents of a social work report prepared for the court which were based on interviews Murrell had given.
“You identified possible factors arising from your background, working life, and personal circumstances but, in truth, it is very difficult to get a clear picture for what drove your actions.
“Many of the high-value items acquired by you were not even used, and for my purposes today, I think it’s sufficient to say that I cannot identify any factors which caused you to offend, which might be considered to be mitigatory factors."
Murrell's lawyer John Scullion KC said earlier in the hearing in his plea of mitigation that his client acknowledged that a custodial sentence SNP funds would be entirely deserved as he confirmed he would repay the embezzled sum "in full".
He added that Murrell recognised the harm his actions have caused.
“In my submission, the accused is now an individual overwhelmed by feelings of embarrassment and shame, ” he told judge Lord Young.
He said his client had lived "for many months he has lived in almost total isolation", had accepted blame, been “ostracised” by his former colleagues and added he had become a “figure of public ridicule” as a result of his purchases.
Murrell, who was SNP chief executive from 2001 to 2023, was arrested as part of Police Scotland’s long-running Operation Branchform and charged in April 2024.
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Ms Sturgeon and former SNP treasurer Colin Beattie were also arrested during the investigation but later released without charge.
Earlier this month the court was told how Murrell used SNP credit cards, made false expense claims and faked invoices to embezzle the money.
It heard that as chief executive Murrell had “ultimate approval of all expense claims submitted, including his own”.
The disgraced former party chief was led from the High Court in Edinburgh in handcuffs earlier this month after a judge heard details of how he perpetrated a catalogue of thefts from the party he had helped build up.
He told other staff members he was unable to access the party’s expenses system and gave false paperwork and incorrect account codes to gain goods worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.
He claimed money spent on a Jaguar for personal purposes had instead been used for “staging” for a postponed tour by SNP figures.
While a luxury campervan seized from his mother’s driveway in Dunfermline was instead listed in a false invoice as a van.
The court heard that the 24-foot long vehicle was delivered to Murrell personally at the Halbeath Industrial Estate in Dunfermline in 2021 and, with just four miles on the clock, had never moved again before it was impounded by police two years later.
Advocate Depute Alan Cameron KC told the court the former SNP chief gave no comment during initial police interviews.
He added the embezzled funds “came principally from membership fees and donations paid by party members and other donors and legacies”.
Two watches each worth more than £4,500 were listed as purchases of “event merchandise”.
Purchases included more than £1,000 in candles and reed diffusers from Jo Malone and a robotic lawnmower worth almost £3,100 – which had been “misdescribed” in accounting software as spending on legal fees.
A silver wine coaster from jewellers Hamilton & Inches was explained away as a “leadership expenses” and described as “silver presentation quaichs”.
It was recovered by police from the home Murrell shared with Sturgeon, who has said she had no knowledge of her husband’s actions.
Other items there included a fitted home library partly paid for through SNP funds, a bathroom vanity unit and a kitchen boiler unit.
Mr Cameron said the “majority” of the purchased items were not recovered during police searches.
Following Murrell's guilty plea last month, Assistant Chief Constable Stuart Houston, who had oversight of Operation Branchform, said: “This was a lengthy and extremely complex case due to the scale of criminality over a 12-year period and the lengths Peter Murrell went to try and cover his tracks.
“Peter Murrell has shown utter contempt for the high public trust placed in him as the chief executive of a political party and his position in the wider political establishment in Scotland for many years.
“He abused his privileged position with access to Scottish National Party funds to divert cash into his own accounts and bankroll the lavish lifestyle he craved but could not afford.
“From 2010 to 2022 he spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on luxury goods while carefully trying to hide his criminality with false receipts and accounting.
“He must now face the consequences of his actions.”
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