PROSECTORS have outlined the facts of the embezzlement case against Peter Murrell, detailing the crimes which the former SNP chief executive committed.
On Monday, May 25, Murrell, the estranged husband of former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, pleaded guilty to embezzling £400,000 from the SNP from 2010 to 2022.
He appeared in court again on Tuesday, June 2, for a hearing, and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has published a nine-page “narrative” which outlines the details of the crimes to which Murrell has pleaded guilty.
Prosecutors also published five images of items the former SNP chief bought with embezzled funds, including a wine coaster, a robotic lawnmower, and a £124,550 Niesmann+Bischoff motorhome.
Read on for the full COPFS narrative against Peter Murrell.
Narrative in HMA v Peter Tierney Murrell (CO24000279)
History
The accused is 61 years of age, having been born on [redacted].
He has no [redacted].
History of case
The accused appeared on petition at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on 20 March 2025. He made no plea and was committed for further examination and released on bail. This indictment was served upon him on 19 January 2026. On 4 February 2026 a Statement of Uncontroversial Evidence, extending to 318 pages, was served upon him. The Preliminary Hearing fixed for 20 February 2026 was discharged on the motion of both parties to allow further time for preparation.
On 3 March 2026 the accused gave instructions to his legal representatives to explore the possibility of resolution of the case by way of a plea of guilty. The nature of the indictment, in particular the lengthy Schedules, meant that discussions between the accused and his legal representatives, and between those representatives and the Crown, about the detail of the now agreed plea took some time and continued until just prior to the case calling on 25 May 2026. The accused confirmed that he would plead guilty, and that plea was intimated to the Crown, on 21 May 2026.
Description of events
The accused was the Chief Executive Officer of the Scottish National Party between 2001 and March 2023. In that role he was effectively in charge of the administrative side of the party. Other people were employed by the party in various capacities over that time but the accused was in overall charge throughout. From August 2010 until October 2022 he used party funds for a variety of unauthorised purposes. The total sum of money which he misused, and thereby embezzled, was £400,310.65. The source of those funds was the party’s principal bank account over which the accused had control. The money within that account came principally from membership fees and donations paid by party members and other donors, and legacies.
In his role as CEO the accused was able to make direct transfers of money from that bank account. He also had a charge card linked to that account in his name for use in paying for items required by the party, as did other members of staff. The accused made direct transfers of money and used his party charge card and those of two other staff members to make purchases which were not connected to party business; rather they were for his own use or the use of others. Those other members of staff were unaware of him using their cards for that purpose.
The party used accounting software to record income and expenditure. Any items purchased were recorded within that software under an accounting code which provided a general description of the nature of the spending. Examples of accounting codes were: media, transport and tours and campaign overheads. The accused had direct access to the accounting system and could log items of expenditure himself, although the majority of such work was done by another staff member under his direction. In relation to many of the items which the accused purchased for his own use or that of others, he provided misleading descriptions and/or accounting codes under which the purchases were recorded on the accounting software. While there were hundreds of such purchases which were inaccurately recorded, three examples demonstrate how this worked in practice.
- The accused made two purchases from CW Sellors Jura watches using £9350.25 of SNP funds. On 8 June 2017 he purchased a white Bremont watch for £4555.25; on 12 July 2017, he purchased a black Bremont watch for £4795. Both transactions were recorded on the accounting software as ‘event merchandise’. These watches were found by police during their search of party headquarters in April 2023.
- The accused purchased a travel watch roll from Smythson in November 2017 using £332 of SNP funds. This transaction was recorded on the accounting software under the code ‘staff expenses’ and described as ‘Double Tree The Glasgow City Hotel’.
- The accused purchased an OXO Good Grips 2-piece silicone egg poacher set on 7 July 2020 using £23.98 of SNP funds. This transaction was recorded on the accounting software under the code ‘computer hardware purchases’ and described as ‘Ethernet cabling’.
Purchases with SNP charge cards
The earliest purchases which form part of the embezzlement were made with the online retailer Amazon. Over the course of more than 12 years the accused made 383 such purchases from Amazon using party charge cards. A full list of the dates and items purchased is contained within Schedule 2 to the indictment, as amended. As can be seen there, a single purchase may include more than one item. In total the accused spent £42,660.74 on items purchased from Amazon which were not for party purposes. The items were mostly delivered to either his home address or to the party headquarters, with a small number being delivered to the addresses of family members. From 24 April 2020 all but one of the Amazon purchases were delivered to his home address.
Between June 2015 and June 2022 the accused also made 238 such purchases from other retailers using party charge cards. A full list of the dates, retailers and items purchased is contained within Schedule 3 to the indictment, as amended. Again, a single purchase may include more than one item. In total the accused spent £139,971 on items purchased from other retailers which were not for party purposes. Almost all of these items were purchased online. Again, most were delivered to his home address or to the party headquarters, with a small number being delivered to the addresses of family members. From 13 March 2020 all purchases were delivered to his home address.
Many of the items purchased, particularly from Amazon, were inexpensive articles for everyday living such as cleaning products and batteries. Others were expensive items from luxury retailers. There were a significant number of purchases of kitchenware and food/beverage related items, items for gardening, watches, clothing and leisure goods such as books, DVDs and video games and consoles. The following is a small sample of the total range of items purchased.
- Items from Montblanc with a total cost of £24,342.60.
- Items from Smythson, a retailer of luxury stationery, leather goods, diaries and fashion products, with a total cost of £24,495.50
- Items from Dyson with a total cost of £6085.86.
- Items from Le Creuset with a total cost of £5319.28.
- Coffee machines with a total cost of £8991.65. Two of these, Jura coffee machines purchased at a cost of £3231.90 and £1865.75 respectively, were found by police at the accused’s home.
- Cup warmers with a total cost of £1782.99.
- Items from Joseph Joseph with a total value of £749.94.
- Reed diffusers and candles from Jo Malone with a total cost of £1056.
- Umbrellas with a total cost of £1990.50.
- Two salt and pepper grinders from Lalique costing £2618.16.
- A robotic lawnmower, including installation, for his home address costing £3070. This item was misdescribed in the accounting software as spending on "legal fees" and was found at his home when it was searched by police.
- A hand chased silver wine coaster from Hamilton & Inches jewellers costing £3500. This item was misdescribed as spending on "leadership expenses" with the description "Hamilton & Inches sterling silver presentation quaiches". It was found at the accused’s home when it was searched by police.
Some of the items listed in the Schedules were recovered by police during their search of the accused’s home in April 2023, with a smaller number of others being recovered from the SNP headquarters. Others were found but left in situ at the accused’s home, including a fitted home library which was partly paid for with SNP funds, a wooden library ladder, a bathroom vanity unit, a kitchen unit for the boiler and fitted mats in the hallway. The majority of the items purchased were not found during the searches.
On 30 October 2019 the accused used his SNP charge card to pay a £30 parking ticket with which he had been issued at Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy five days earlier.
Expenses claims
As CEO of the party, the accused had ultimate approval of all expenses claims submitted, including his own. Although there was an electronic portal through which expenses claims should have been submitted, the accused stated to colleagues that he could not access it and was thereby able to submit his own claims without necessarily providing a receipt or invoice. On four occasions between January 2019 and September 2020 he made false claims and received money from the party in relation to expenses which he had not incurred. The details of those false claims, including dates and sums, are listed in Schedule 1 to the indictment. The total sum received by the accused by way of false expenses claims was £18,408.91.
In relation to two of those claims, false invoices were created by the accused to give the impression that they were for legitimate party expenditure. One of those false invoices, for £12,042 from Apple, was recovered by police from the party’s auditors. Comparison with a genuine invoice from Apple for purchases by the SNP shows that it was used as the basis for the false invoice created by the accused. A false entry on the party’s Fixed Asset Register for the same amount was also added by the accused, with the description of the item given as ‘Apple processor’. No such item was ever purchased.
The second false invoice, for £2478 from Manufactum, was sent by the accused to the party’s auditors when this payment to him was queried by them. An entry on the party’s Fixed Asset Register had been created but the item to which it referred was not described. In response to the query the accused stated that this had been for studio light fittings which he had inadvertently paid for with his own credit card rather than a party one, hence the expenses claim. He also sent a false invoice which he had created purporting to show the purchase of four lights. No such lights had been purchased. Rather, the accused had used his own money to purchase from that manufacturer a number of items with no connection to the party. A genuine invoice from the manufacturer in that amount was found by the police within his home when it was searched in April 2023. Two of the items purchased – a lawn aerator and garden edger – were also found within his garage during the search. However, a number of other items, including the most expensive purchased – a "Modern doorbell" priced at £2055 – were not found.
In June 2021 the accused sold an iPad belonging to the party to the Technology Recycle Group for £701. He received the proceeds of the sale directly into his personal bank account.
Vehicles
A significant proportion of the total sum embezzled relates to spending on three vehicles for the accused’s own use. The first such vehicle was a new Volkswagen Golf which he purchased in early 2016. The total price paid was £32,989 with part of that being supplied by the accused in the form of a deposit and the trade-in value of another car. That left a balance of £16,489 which the accused paid by direct transfer from the SNP account on 29 March 2016. The car was not an SNP asset and was used only by the accused. He was not entitled to a company car in his role as CEO.
The second such vehicle was a new Jaguar i-Pace which the accused ordered on 9 September 2019. The total price of the vehicle was £81,277, part of which was funded by trading in the previously mentioned Volkswagen Golf. A deposit of £12,027 was paid by the accused from his own bank account. That sum was part of the total received by the accused from the SNP as a result of the fraudulent expenses claims previously described. The balance of £57,500 was paid by the accused in two direct transfers from the SNP account on 1 November 2019. This was required as no payment greater than £30,000 could be made from the SNP account.
The vehicle was not an SNP asset and was used only by the accused.
The accused created a false invoice in which the name of the car dealer from whom the Jaguar had been purchased was changed from ‘Pentland Jaguar East’ to ‘Pentland Motor Company Ltd’. The customer address listed was the SNP Headquarters rather than his home address – which was what he had actually provided to the dealer – and the description of the item purchased was given as ‘stage payment’. He passed it to the person responsible for adding items to the SNP accounts with a note that it was to be coded under the heading ‘transport’. During a subsequent audit this was one of a number of transactions about which he was asked for further information. He claimed that the payment was for staging for SNP events and that it had related to a planned national tour of key communicators from the party which had had to be postponed for various reasons, including the Covid-19 pandemic.
On 27 August 2021 the accused sold the vehicle, receiving the £47,378.76 proceeds into his personal bank account.
The third such vehicle was a new Niesmann and Bischoff Smove 7.4e motorhome which the accused ordered on 14 October 2020. The total price of the vehicle was £124,550. The accused made three payments totalling £12,500 as a deposit with his SNP charge card. The balance of £112,050 was paid by the accused in four direct transfers from the SNP account on 7 December 2020. The motor home was delivered to the accused at the Halbeath Industrial Estate on 22 January 2021 and driven by him to his mother’s home in Dunfermline where it remained until it was seized by police officers on 5 April 2023. When seized the odometer showed that the vehicle had only ever been driven for four miles.
The accused created a false invoice in the name of the motorhome dealer. Again, the customer address listed was the SNP Headquarters rather than his home address which he had actually provided to the dealer, and the account name was changed from "Murrell" to "SNP – Murrell". In addition, the description of the vehicle concerned was altered to describe a van rather than a motorhome and many details were removed including those of the specification and additional options chosen by the accused which included security, tracking and navigation systems and a television. This false invoice was provided to the person responsible for adding items to the accounts.
When the purchase was later raised by the auditor the motorhome was added to the party’s Fixed Asset Register but it was never used or seen by any other party member or employee. The accused was the registered keeper of the vehicle which was insured for him only to drive for social, domestic and pleasure purposes. After its purchase the accused suggested to other party employees that the motorhome could have been used for campaigning purposes but it was not. When seized by police officers there were no campaign materials or other SNP paraphernalia within and the motorhome was not branded. It was configured exactly as a motorhome used for pleasure would be. The day after he had ordered the motorhome the accused purchased from Amazon three guides to inspirational journeys around Scotland, England & Wales and Ireland in a camper van or motorhome. Within the motorhome were a number of the items mentioned in the schedules to the indictment, including Le Creuset and Joseph Joseph kitchen implements, an Alessi teapot and various Molton Brown toiletries.
Police involvement
A complaint about possible mismanagement of SNP finances was first made to Police Scotland in March 2021. Other complaints followed and, in response, the police began to investigate. It was during the course of that investigation that evidence of the accused’s embezzlement was uncovered and became a focus for further investigation.
On 5 April 2023 police officers executed search warrants at the accused’s home address and the party headquarters and seized the motorhome from the accused’s mother’s driveway. The accused was arrested and taken to Falkirk Police Office where he was interviewed, making no comment in response to all questions asked, before being released from custody. On 18 April 2024 he attended at Falkirk Police Office where he was arrested and again interviewed, again making no comment in response to all questions asked. At the end of the interview he was charged with embezzlement, to which he made no response, and released from custody.
