Nicola Sturgeon might face the loss of her residence as she could be required to repay the £400,000 her separated spouse embezzled from the Scottish National Party (SNP).
The home in Uddingston, Glasgow, which Sturgeon shares with her husband Peter Murrell, may be subject to sale under the proceeds of crime laws to recover the misappropriated money, according to a legal authority.
The pair acquired the property for £228,000 in 2005. In recent times, similar homes on their street have fetched around £330,000. Considering their substantial incomes, it’s probable that their mortgage is fully paid off.
Although the investigation against Sturgeon has concluded, she is eligible to claim her portion of any sale proceeds. However, Murrell’s share could potentially be utilized to compensate the political party he led for over twenty years.
In June 2021, Murrell extended a loan of £107,620 to the party, with £60,000 still unpaid. It is anticipated that this debt will also be forgiven to help repay the SNP.
The former Chief Executive of the SNP, who has since fallen from grace, failed to report the loan to the Electoral Commission. This lapse occurred despite his purchase of a £124,550 motorhome using party finances, which he subsequently stored at his mother’s residence six months later.
Murrell pleaded guilty to embezzling £400,310.65 from the SNP for 12 years in court on May 25. A verbal motion for confiscation was then put in place to recover assets acquired through criminal activity.
Weeks after Sturgeon quit as first minister in March 2023, detectives raided the property and prosecutors issued a legal ban against selling the home.
Former First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, could lose her home to pay back the £400,000 her estranged husband embezzled from the SNP
Sturgeon’s estranged husband Peter Murrell embezzled £400,310.65 from the SNP over 12 years
Murrell’s share in the suburban home in Uddingston, Glasgow, could be used to pay back the party he ran for two decades
Yvonne Evans, a senior law lecturer at Dundee University, told the Times that selling the house was ‘the most obvious way to make up shortfall on Murrell’s part’.
If the house is under shared ownership, Sturgeon would keep her share, but Murrell’s would go towards repaying the embezzled party funds under a confiscation order.
Other purchases made with SNP money will be reclaimed to raise funds but the value will not be the same as when they were bought, the lecturer said.
The shared property in Uddingston is not Sturgeon’s only place of residence. In the last year, the former SNP leader stayed at flats in Edinburgh and London.
It has been speculated that former SNP donors could bring a civil case to get their money back after Scotland’s First Minister, John Swinney, said there would be no refunds.
If embezzled funds return to the party through the proceeds of crime legislation, Evans said a case made by donors to retrieve funds would be unlikely to succeed.
‘If the money is returned to SNP, there will be no ultimate financial loss once it has been repaid,’ she said.
‘It seems likely that the SNP will be reimbursed the full £400,000 by Murrell.’
Murrell went to great lengths to disguise his crimes, Swinney said, as calls have been made for an independent inquiry into how he was able to steal SNP funds.
It is unlikely SNP would vote in favour of a Holyrood inquiry with parties such as the Scottish Greens opposing the move.
But there are calls from Westminster for the Scottish affairs committee, with eight of the 11 committee members to open an investigation if Holyrood does not.
Opponents in Scotland were quick to point out that more than £2million of taxpayers’ money went towards the police inquiry.
