Murrell, the estranged husband of former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, is alleged to have used SNP funds to buy luxury items, cars, and a motorhome – as well as falsified documents linked to the sales, according to documents first reported by the Scottish Sun.

The charges brought against Murrell are:

Embezzlement of £459,046.49 of SNP funds over a 13-year period (2010–2023).

Purchase of a £124,550 motorhome (Niesmann and Bischoff Smove 7.4e) using SNP funds for personal use.

Creation of false duplicate sales documents relating to the motorhome to portray it as a legitimate party expense.

Use of £16,489 of SNP funds towards a £33,000 Volkswagen Golf in 2016.

Use of £57,500 of SNP funds towards an £81,000 Jaguar I-Pace in 2019, and allegedly creating a false invoice to disguise the purchase.

Claiming £18,408.91 in expenses he was allegedly not entitled to, including alleged false invoices.

Spending £159,757.39 of SNP funds at 82 retailers on items allegedly for personal use or the use of others (2014–2022).

Spending £81,610.19 of SNP funds on Amazon purchases (2010–2023), allegedly for personal use or others, and recorded in a way said to disguise their true nature.

The allegations cover a period from August 12, 2010 to January 13, 2023, a total of 12 years and five months. The SNP was running the Scottish government for the entirety of the time period, which also covers the 2014 independence referendum.

The most detailed charged relates to the now-notorious motorhome, which was allegedly purchased from a dealer in Stafford, in England, in October 2020 with £12,500 put onto an SNP credit card.

In December 2020, Murrell is alleged to have paid a further £112,050 from an SNP bank account to the dealer, and then had the motorhome delivered to Dunfermline, where it was stored at his parents’ property.

Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell pictured outside a polling place in 2019 (Image: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire)

Then he is accused of having created false documentation “to portray the purchase as a legitimate party expense by altering or removing true details of the motorhome sale”.

Murrell is also accused of having created false documentation linked to a purchase of a Jaguar i-Pace in late 2019, leading to “false or inaccurate” information being logged in the SNP accounting system.

The indictment then states that the car was sold in Glasgow in August 2021 to We Buy Any Car for £47,378, which was allegedly paid into Murrell’s personal bank account.

Murrell served as SNP chief executive from 2001 to 2023, and the party first won a Holyrood election under Alex Salmond in 2007. He resigned in March 2023, one month after Sturgeon resigned as first minister.

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Murrell was arrested in April 2023 and questioned by detectives while his Uddingston home, which he shared with Sturgeon, and the SNP’s headquarters were searched. He was then released without charge.

However, one year later, in April 2024, Murrell was re-arrested and charged with embezzlement.

In March 2025, Sturgeon and former SNP treasurer Colin Beattie, who had also been arrested and questioned over the course of the police probe into the party’s finances, were both cleared after the investigation was closed.

Two months prior, in January 2025, Sturgeon had announced that her and Murrell were splitting up after 15 years of marriage and 22 years together.

The police investigation, which was codenamed Operation Branchform, had been launched in 2021 following a complaint about what the party had done with more than £600,000 raised from the general public with the stated aim of fighting a second independence referendum.

Murrell is expected to appear at Glasgow’s High Court for a preliminary hearing, where he should appear in person and enter a plea, on Friday, February 20.