£400,000. That's the sum a court found former Scottish National Party chief executive Peter Murrell took from the party over roughly 12 years. Murrell admitted using party money to pay for personal purchases and on June 24, 2026 was sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh to five years and three months in prison. Prosecutors and Police Scotland told the court the theft came from the party's main bank account, which held donations and membership fees, and that it depleted funds meant for party activity.
£400,000.
The sentence on June 24 capped a case brought by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service that exposed systematic concealment and misuse of party finances.
The court heard the spending stretched from 2010 and escalated over time, with purchases recorded under misleading accounting entries and falsified invoices so they appeared legitimate. Prosecutors presented accountancy records and invoices showing many personal items entered into party finance systems under innocuous labels such as household items, leadership costs and event merchandising. For at least one vehicle purchase, investigators said Murrell created a false supplier name on paperwork to hide the outlay.
Police Scotland evidence and court papers set out the catalogue of purchases used in the Crown's case. The most expensive single item was a motorhome recorded on an invoice as a "van." Prosecutors detailed hundreds of other transactions charged to SNP accounts and credit cards, including luxury leather goods, stationery, watches and fountain pens.
Investigators also seized a robotic lawn mower from Murrell's garage and reported expensive household items such as crystal and designer kitchenware among the smaller transactions.
At sentencing prosecutors said the deceptive bookkeeping allowed Murrell to conceal his actions from party colleagues and auditors for more than a decade. Court filings grouped totals by category and showed the various lines of spending added up to roughly £400,000, a figure the Crown relied on when proving the scale of the offending.
Legal process and political consequences
Murrell pleaded guilty earlier in the year, and the sentencing hearing on June 24 followed a narrative hearing and the guilty plea entered in May. The court backdated his sentence to May 25, 2026, the date he entered the guilty plea, and noted he had been given credit for time already served.
The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service brought the charges that led to conviction. Police Scotland and prosecutors told the court the funds were taken from the SNP's main bank account, the account that holds donations and membership fees. They argued the siphoning had a practical effect on the party because money intended for campaigning and organisational activity was instead used for personal purchases.
The case has direct political consequences for the SNP and for former first minister Nicola Sturgeon. Sturgeon resigned two months before Murrell's arrest and has said she was unaware of the embezzlement. That public claim of ignorance sits alongside court findings that Murrell exploited his control of party finances and provided misleading accounting descriptions for many transactions.
Beyond the sentence, the Crown's catalogue of invoices and Police Scotland's evidence have put internal party controls under scrutiny. The prosecution record laid bare how long the conduct persisted and how it was hidden inside routine finance entries, a failure of oversight prosecutors highlighted at the High Court in Edinburgh.
For political opponents and for members of the SNP the conviction is likely to become a focal point in questions about governance and financial stewardship. The conviction also sharpens scrutiny on how political parties manage donation and membership income when senior staff have direct control over accounts and supplier records.
Legal documents in the public record show the practical mechanics of the offending, but they also make clear the scale of the administrative deception. That's the detail prosecutors used to persuade the court the offending was deliberate and repeated, and to justify the custodial term imposed.
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The court sentenced Peter Murrell to five years and three months in prison, a term backdated to May 25, 2026, after he pleaded guilty and investigators produced a catalogue of roughly £400,000 in purchases taken from the party's main account. Originally reported by ABC News.
This article was created with AI assistance.
