POLICE Scotland have confirmed that there will be no new probe into the SNP accounts.
It comes after Sean Clerkin, the independence activist who was behind the original police complaint into the indyref2 donations which triggered Operation Branchform, reported John Swinney to the police yesterday.
Clerkin lodged a complaint after the First Minister acknowledged that the over £600k raised by the SNP in 2017 for a future independence referendum campaign had been spent on general party campaigning.
The First Minister said it was part of the party’s resources to “support its independence objectives”.
“That money is part of the resources that are available within the Scottish National Party to support its independence objectives, and the SNP is a party of independence, and that's what we campaign for,” Swinney told journalists at Holyrood yesterday.
“We just campaigned for Scottish independence at the Scottish Parliament elections.”
When it was noted that those who donated to the fighting fund were told it would be ringfenced for a second referendum, and some don’t feel as if it was used for that purpose, Swinney said: “What is important is that the SNP resources are used for the purposes for which they are intended, and that is exactly what I want to make sure is the case.”
It comes as the SNP will also now pursue former chief executive Peter Murrell for the money he embezzled from the party.
The party’s National Executive Committee agreed to a proposal by First Minister John Swinney last night to launch a compensation order to try and recoup the cash.
An SNP source told ITV Border: “The NEC were unanimous in their position that we should seek to recover the funds stolen from us by Peter Murrell."
The broadcaster also reported that the SNP will also lodge a secondary civil action against Murrell but immediately suspend it in case "something goes wrong" with the proceeds of crime action.
Murrell, the SNP’s former chief executive and estranged husband of Nicola Sturgeon, admitted at the High Court in Edinburgh last week to embezzling over £400,000 in party funds over a 12‑year period, using SNP money for personal expenditure.
Court papers revealed a lengthy list of items he bought with the embezzled money, including a space telescope, DVDs, a home library ladder worth more than £900 and a coffee machine worth nearly £3232.
Two cars and a £124,550 motorhome were also among the purchases.
Murrell’s guilty plea has led to intense scrutiny for his former wife Sturgeon, who has denied knowing of his crimes – saying she was “deceived, misled and betrayed”.
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.
