Peter Murrell jailed for five years after embezzling £400,000 from SNP

Peter Murrell has been sentenced to five years and three months in jail after he admitted embezzling more than £400,000 from the Scottish National party while he was its chief executive. Murrell stole the money over a 12-year period, splashing out on a luxury motorhome, a Jaguar SUV, Montblanc pens and luxury watches, a set of Lalique salt and pepper grinders and 2kg of coffee granules. The now estranged husband of the former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, Murrell covered up his theft of £400,315.65 by entering false accounting codes in the SNP’s accounts and submitting falsified invoices. In the high court in Edinburgh, Lord Young told Murrell he was guilty of a “calculated crime of dishonesty” which involved “a significant breach of trust” affecting his former party and party donors. Handing down the sentence, which was backdated to Murrell’s guilty plea on 25 May, the judge told Murrell he wanted to send a clear warning to others that these crimes carried significant punishments. “Let me make it clear to you, one factor in the sentence I impose today will be to act as a deterrent to any senior officials in other large organisations who might be tempted to abuse their position in the way you did,” Young said. If Murrell had pleaded not guilty and had gone to trial, he would have faced seven years in jail. Despite a lengthy criminal social work report based on interviews with Murrell, Young said he could find no satisfactory explanation for his crimes. …