SUN EXCLUSIVE: Peter Murrell accused of embezzling £460,000 from the SNP in eight court charges [UPDATED]

The former chief executive of the SNP Peter Murrell is accused of embezzling £460,000 from the SNP over 13 years, according to court papers. 

Nicola Sturgeon’s estranged husband stands accused of embezzling £460,000 of SNP funds over the course of more than a decade, bombshell court papers reveal.

Peter Murrell, 61, is alleged to have used the cash to buy items including cars, a motorhome, luxury goods, shoes, cosmetics and jewellery over a twelve-and-a-half year period.

He picked up a £125,000 motorhome bought from an English firm and had it shipped almost 300 miles to near his mum’s home In Dunfermline – then stored it at her property, court papers claim.

The ex SNP chief exec, who split with Nicola Sturgeon last year, is also accused of creating “false” sales documents “in order to portray the purchase as a legitimate party expense” in court papers which emerged last night.

The allegation emerged in a sensational charge sheet outlining eight embezzlement allegations Murrell faces at the High Court in Glasgow next week.

In total, the ex-SNP chief executive is accused of embezzling £459,046.49 of party funds between August 12, 2010 and January 13, 2023.

The charge sheet detailing allegations against Ms Sturgeon’s estranged husband says he spent £159,757.39 of Nats funds between December 11, 2014 – the month after his wife took over from Alex Salmond – and June 22, 2022.

The 2,600 word indictment ahead of Murrell’s next scheduled court appearance, on February 20, covers alleged crimes spanning 4,538 days – or 12 years and five months – between August 12, 2010 and January 13, 2023.

The most detailed charge – running to 300 words – alleges Murrell bought a Niesmann and Bischoff Smove 7.4e motorhome vehicle at a cost of £124,550 “for your own personal use” from a dealer in Stafford, Staffs, using SNP funds.

Then on December 7, 2020, the charge claims he paid another £112,050 for the vehicle “by transferring said sum from a Scottish National Party bank account” to the dealer.

Between October 2020 and January 2021 he’s further accused of creating “false duplicate sales documentation” from the motorhome dealer “to portray the purchase as a legitimate party expense by altering or removing true details of the motorhome sale, and thereafter provide said false duplicate sales documentation” to the SNP for its accounts.

Court papers claim Murrell then “took possession” of the motorhome at Halbeath Industrial Estate in Dunfermline before “storing” it at his mum Margaret’s home in the Fife town less than three miles away.

In separate charges Murrell is also alleged to have used £16,489 of SNP money towards a £33,000 Volkswagen Golf bought in early 2016 from Western Volkswagen in Newbridge, Edinburgh.

And it’s also alleged he used £57,500 of SNP cash to pay for the bulk of an £81,000 Jaguar I-Pace motor in autumn 2019.

This charge goes on to say he created a “false invoice” to provide to SNP accountants, leading to “false or inaccurate” information being logged in an “accounting system used by the Scottish National Party in an attempt to disguise the true nature” of the Jag purchase.

The car was sold to We Buy Any Car in Glasgow in August 2021, leading to £47,378.76 being paid into Mr Murrell’s personal bank account, the indictment says.

Another charge centres on Murrell’s expenses as SNP chief executive. It says he made claims totalling £18,408.91 that “you were not entitled to so claim”, with cash paid into his personal account.

It says this sum included £12,042 for the Jag purchase in 2019. Also included in this charge is an allegation Murrell made “false invoices” for a £12,042 payment to Apple Retail and £2478 to high-end German retailer Manufactum, both for “purported business related” purchases.

Full details of the exact purchases alleged to have been claimed on business expenses are not included in the indictment, but are contained in “schedules” lodged with the court.

Murrell is also accused of using SNP funds to pay a parking ticket, according to the charge sheet.

It’s alleged that on October 30, 2019, Murrell used his SNP payment card to pay “a Fixed Penalty Charge Notice of £30, namely a parking ticket”, issued to him at the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, five days earlier.

Murrell was charged in April 2024 following a police investigation into SNP finances codenamed Operation Branchform.

He made no plea when he appeared at at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in March last year and was granted bail.

Police later confirmed that Ms Sturgeon, who had been arrested and released without charge in June 2023, was no longer under investigation in the police probe.

Ms Sturgeon announced in January last year that she and Murrell had “decided to end” their marriage.

In a social media post, the MSP said the pair had been separated for some time.

The former first minister said the decision to end the marriage had been made “with a heavy heart”.

She posted on Instagram: “To all intents and purposes we have been separated for some time now and feel it is time to bring others up to speed with where we are.

“It goes without saying that we still care deeply for each other, and always will.”

The couple first met at an SNP youth event in 1988 and had been together since 2003.

They married at a ceremony in Glasgow, where they shared a home together, in 2010.

Sturgeon unexpectedly announced her resignation as first minister and SNP leader in February 2023 after eight years in office.

She denied her decision was influenced by the police investigation.

Murrell resigned as SNP chief executive in March 2023, having held the post since 2001.

He quit after taking responsibility for misleading the media about party membership numbers.

Police Scotland spent more than two years looking into what happened to £660,000 of donations given to the SNP by independence activists.

Mr Murrell leaving Edinburgh Sheriff Court at an earlier hearing Credit : SCOTTISH SUN