Peter Murrell’s £400,000 spending scandal at the SNP came to light after investigators discovered what they described as extravagant purchases on a party card, including Montblanc pens and Le Creuset cookware.
Detectives grew concerned after finding substantial amounts of party money had been used to buy luxury lifestyle goods, even though the SNP’s finances were under pressure.
Following Murrell’s sentencing today to five years and three months in prison, Police Scotland released interview footage showing the former SNP chief executive sitting impassively as officers questioned him about the spending.
During the interview, one detective told Murrell: ‘Over £19,000 is exclusively on pens alone.
‘It’s quite frankly an outrageous amount of money to be spending on pens, in my opinion… What does the SNP need over £19,000 of luxury pens for?’
Murrell looked directly at the officer but said nothing as he was accused of ‘thieving’ £400,000 from SNP members.
The collapse of his public life and marriage began as detectives traced purchases such as Le Creuset Mickey Mouse ramekins and a ‘steel zen tea kettle’ to a Scottish National Party card, with no corresponding entries in the party’s accounts.
Investigators said every item of spending should have been properly recorded, and the missing entries raised serious red flags while deepening suspicions of criminal conduct within the SNP, then led by his wife, Nicola Sturgeon.
The trail of spending led investigators to Murrell and marked the start of his downfall, which culminated today in a five-year jail sentence.
Ms Sturgeon’s estranged husband refused to answer questions as detectives grilled him about the embezzlement – including what he would say to party members whose money had been taken.
He also sat in silence when asked about his apparent Amazon addiction and why so much had been spent on luxury pens, including Montblanc sets, for a party fighting for an independent Scotland.
Murrell (pictured in his police interview) refused to answer questions about his spending on £19,000 of luxury pens and Le Creuset cookware… items that would lead to his downfall
He was jailed for five years and three months – but would have got seven years if he had not pleaded guilty
Murrell was asked why the SNP would need £19,000 for luxury pens like these Montblancs he bought
He is seen in a small police station interview room alongside his lawyer, whose face is pixellated.
Murrell, 61, wears a checked shirt and listens impassively as a detective questions him about the fraud.
The interviews took place in April 2024, on the day he was charged with embezzlement.
Last month, Murrell admitted embezzling more than £400,000 of party funds.
The case followed Operation Branchform, the long-running probe into SNP finances, which cost more than £3million.
Murrell’s estranged wife Nicola Sturgeon also answered ‘no comment’ when questioned by police, but has not been charged.
Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay said: ‘Just like his wife “no comment Nicola”, Peter Murrell chose to brazenly stonewall detectives’ legitimate questions.
‘In so doing, the former SNP boss added to the multi-million cost of the justice process with zero regard for Scotland’s taxpayers.
‘There must be an inquiry.’
The detective is heard putting to Murrell that ‘your behaviour and embezzlement must have had a negative impact on the business [of the SNP]’.
The officer says: ‘There must have been decisions which couldn’t be made because the cash reserve was so low.
‘And part of the reason they’re low is you’re thieving off them.
‘What would you say to those people, those members, who asked you about that?
‘What are you going to say to them?’
The detective also puts to Murrell that ‘Amazon were the perfect foil for you because they’re a retailer you can hide transactions behind’.
The officer says: ‘They sell everything so you can describe it as anything – and they deliver quickly.
‘But easy to hide, easy to miscode [in SNP accounts], easy to buy things and call them something else, if you buy them on Amazon.
‘And you spread the Amazon transactions across three cards.
‘If all of your Amazon purchases were on your own card, it would just be Amazon, Amazon, Amazon, non-stop.
Peter Murrell in a prison van as he left Edinburgh High Court after sentencing on Tuesday
Nicola Sturgeon says she was ‘betrayed’ by her husband, who she is now estranged from
‘That’s why you use Amazon so much, isn’t it?’
Murrell quietly responds: ‘No comment.’
The detective also says more than £19,000 was spent ‘exclusively on pens alone’.
He says: ‘Quite frankly, it’s an outrageous amount of money to be spending on pens, in my opinion.
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‘What about your opinion?
‘You bought them. You must have an opinion on them, Peter.
‘What does the SNP need over £19,000 of luxury pens for?’
Murrell gently shakes his head and responds with ‘no comment’.
The Scottish Mail on Sunday revealed at the weekend that Murrell had insisted the SNP would willingly report criminality to the police – just hours after purchasing a luxury motorhome with money he had embezzled from the party.
Back in 2020, Murrell was the SNP chief executive and was giving evidence to MSPs about the party’s disciplinary procedures.
He told them that, although the party had never had to report a member to the police, it would do so if it unearthed a ‘clear act of criminality’.
He then went on to discuss how the SNP would report MSPs to the parliament and other institutions if an allegation was made about ‘misuse of funds’.
At the time, his comments seemed unremarkable.
But in the light of his criminal conviction, they now seem incredibly brazen.
Murrell has been jailed for five years and three months after he admitted embezzling more than £400,000 from the SNP party.
The infamous motorhome that was seized by the police
A wine coaster was another one of the items purchased by Murrell
Last month, the 61-year-old former SNP chief executive admitted siphoning off the huge sum from SNP funds over a 12-year period.
Murrell – estranged husband of former First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon – falsified accounting records and created fake invoices in a bid to cover up his wrongdoing.
Sentencing him at the High Court in Edinburgh, Judge Lord Young told Murrell he had committed a ‘calculated crime of dishonesty’, with a ‘large number of fraudulent acts over a 12-year period while you were chief executive officer of the SNP’.
Murrell used the funds to make hundreds of extravagant purchases, including a £124,550 motorhome, cars, jewellery, luxury homewares and designer stationery.
He also falsified accounting records and created fake invoices in a bid to cover up his deceit.
Lord Young said the offending increased in frequency and amount over time.
He added: ‘You found yourself unable to stop this offending, and it was only the detection of the crime that brought it to an end.’
Murrell’s lawyer John Scullion KC told the High Court that since his client’s guilty plea, ‘for many months he has lived in almost total isolation’.
He said Murrell accepted blame and he had been ‘ostracised’ by his former colleagues.
Mr Scullion said he had become a ‘figure of public ridicule’ as a result of his actions, and he recognised the harm he had caused.
‘In my submission, the accused is now an individual overwhelmed by feelings of embarrassment and shame,’ Mr Scullion told Judge Lord Young.
A nine-page account of Murrell’s extensive offending was read out by prosecutor Alan Cameron KC.
The court heard how a 24ft motorhome costing more than £124,550, which Murrell paid for using stolen cash, had just four miles on the clock when it was seized by police.
And Murrell spent nearly £43,000 on goods from Amazon – with almost all of them delivered to the home he shared with his wife on the outskirts of Glasgow.
A £3,500 silver wine coaster was among items listed as ‘leadership expenses’.
The prosecutor also discussed the purchase of the motorhome by Murrell. Mr Cameron said it was described as a ‘van’ when the invoice was filed. He added: ‘It was never used or seen by any other party member or employee.’
The court previously heard Murrell’s role enabled him to make direct transfers of cash from the SNP’s main bank account, which held funds from ‘membership fees and donations paid by party members and other donors and legacies’.
Murrell also used multiple party ‘charge cards’, as well as making a number of false expense claims.
He tried to dodge suspicion by giving his purchases ‘misleading descriptions and/or accounting codes’ in the party’s finance system, to which he had direct access.
Murrell’s offending came to light after police began receiving complaints about potential mismanagement of the SNP’s finances in March 2021.
This led to an investigation, during which police uncovered evidence of Murrell’s embezzlement.
Murrell’s guilty plea has led to intense scrutiny for his former wife Nicola Sturgeon, who has denied knowing of his crimes – saying she was ‘deceived, misled and betrayed’.
The former SNP leader said she has been ‘completely exonerated’ after a ‘two-year-long, very forensic police investigation’ which saw police officers search the home she and Murrell had shared.
Ms Sturgeon was arrested and questioned as part of the police investigation into the SNP’s finances, which was known as Operation Branchform, but Police Scotland confirmed she would face no action.
The case has also led to widespread calls for inquiries into Murrell’s wrongdoing.
Former first minister Lord Jack McConnell said a joint inquiry by both Holyrood and Westminster committees should examine the matter.
Shadow Scottish secretary Andrew Bowie also called on Westminster’s Scottish Affairs Committee to initiate an inquiry.
The Scottish Government has resisted calls for a parliamentary inquiry, and a Labour motion calling for a probe was rejected earlier this month by a majority of MSPs.
John Swinney had previously said an inquiry was unnecessary given the detailed nature of the police investigation.
The Scottish Affairs Committee in Westminster has considered launching its own probe into the matter.
As well as this, the committee has written to authorities in the Commons in a bid to determine how much short money – public cash given to opposition parties to help them fulfil their duties – was given to the SNP over the period of Murrell’s crimes.
The committee also asked about the ‘safeguards which exist to mitigate the risk of the misuse of short money’.
