COMPLAINERS against Yes Scotland have spoken out after a police interview over claims of a “missing” £1.5 million in the campaign group’s accounts.
David Henry and Sean Clerkin told journalists outside of Fettes Police Station in Edinburgh on Tuesday that officers told them it would be between two to four weeks before they would be told if an investigation would be launched.
Their press conference came just hours after Aamer Anwar, on behalf of Yes Scotland boss Blair Jenkins, insisted that the allegation that money is missing is “false”.
Anwar added following the press conference that Yes Scotland had provided information to officers including full sets of accounts for 2013, 2014 and 2015.
Jenkins also insisted that former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell “never at any time” had access to funds held by the pro-independence campaign group.
In June, Murrell was sentenced to five years imprisonment for £400,000 of embezzlement from the SNP.
Henry and Clerkin said they had handed a dossier of evidence to officers, following their initial complaint last week.
The pair, who were also behind the complaint which led to Operation Branchform and uncovered Murrell’s embezzlement, said that there were still “unanswered questions”.
They alleged that income of just over £1.5m is unaccounted for in Yes Scotland Ltd’s accounts.
However, Anwar insisted that this was Yes Scotland’s operating costs and Murrell “never at any time” had access to Yes Scotland’s accounts.
“All of the income received by Yes Scotland is fully accounted for and it is grossly defamatory to say otherwise,” lawyer Aamer Anwar said in a statement on behalf of Jenkins.
“There appears to have been a desperate attempt to link Peter Murrell’s criminal conduct in the SNP to the financial affairs of Yes Scotland,” Jenkins said.
“To make it perfectly clear, Mr Murrell never at any time had access to Yes Scotland’s accounts.”
In response to Jenkin’s insistence that Murrell had no control of the funds of the pro-independence campaign group, Henry said: “That’s weasel words.”
Henry, a failed SNP candidate who left the party in 2021, later joined Alba, and then stood as a candidate for the Workers Party at the Holyrood 2026 election.
“Access doesn’t mean he wasn’t in control or acting as a shadow director, right?
“Peter Murrell may not have had access to the Yes Scotland Limited account, if that’s what he’s referring to.”
On Murrell’s guilty plea, Henry added: “I thought that was too simple, and too easy, and too quick, and obviously without a full trial there was no chance for cross examination, so we won’t know what might have been discovered.”
Following the press conference, a second statement from Anwar said the “bizarre” claim from Henry and Clerkin that the £3.5m donated by lottery winners Colin and Christine Weir is not referenced in Yes Scotland’s accounts is “simply not true”.
Anwar said this was because “small companies don’t include figures for income and spending in the abbreviated accounts, they are only required to publish the year-end balance sheet”.
The lawyer added: “Even Columbo could have spotted there was no smoking gun, as the total amount received by Yes Scotland in the form of donations during the referendum campaign was about £5.7 million, as was frequently reported by the media at the time, this of course included the Weir’s donations.
“They were all recorded in the full set of accounts provided on behalf of Yes Scotland yesterday to Police Scotland.”
In reference to claims of significant errors and corrections in the 2015 accounts, Anwar said that this was because the 2014 accounts were “restated from a surplus to a deficit to reflect invoices received in the later stages of the campaign”.
“Some invoices for campaign spending had not been paid by the end of October 2014 (i.e. the 2014 accounting period), including a bill for newspaper advertising in the final stages of the referendum of almost £420,000,” he added.
He said that initially these invoices were to be included in the 2015 accounts but it was “better practice” to include them in the 2014 accounts as “the actual spending they represented had taken place in the run-up to the referendum and all of these sums had been included in the official spending returns to the Electoral Commission – all of which can be checked”.
Anwar concluded: “The police have a duty to act on complaints received and to carry out robust investigations; however, the media have a duty to always act responsibly. Blair Jenkins has an impeccable reputation and will not allow highly defamatory allegations to continue unchecked.”
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Information has been received and it is being assessed.”
A spokesperson for the SNP said: “The criminal actions of Peter Murrell was uncovered by a complex and extensive police investigation which found the SNP was the victim of embezzlement.
“Yes Scotland Ltd is and was an entirely separate entity to the SNP. Throughout the referendum campaign Yes Scotland was run by an independent board of directors.
“As everyone knows, the SNP was a major partner in Yes Scotland and campaigned with Yes Scotland during the referendum.”
