{"id":423996,"date":"2026-02-13T17:56:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T17:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/423996\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T17:56:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T17:56:14","slug":"former-snp-chief-executive-peter-murrell-accused-of-embezzling-459000-over-12-year-period","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/423996\/","title":{"rendered":"Former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell accused of embezzling \u00a3459,000 over 12-year period"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Murrell was arrested in 2023 as part of Operation Branchform, a police investigation into the funding and finance of the SNP. He was charged with embezzlement in April 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Sturgeon was also questioned by detectives, but police have since confirmed she is no longer under investigation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">BBC News has seen a copy of an indictment against Murrell ahead of the preliminary hearing next week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">These papers are subject to change up until the point the accused appears in court, and can be altered throughout the judicial process.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The indictment includes allegations that Murrell used party funds to buy a \u00a3124,550 motorhome &#8220;for your own personal use&#8221; from a dealer in Staffordshire, and that he created false documentation &#8220;to portray the purchase as a legitimate party expense&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Murrell is further accused of using \u00a357,500 of SNP money towards the purchase of an \u00a381,000 Jaguar I-PACE car in 2019.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It is also alleged that he falsified an invoice &#8220;in an attempt to disguise the true nature&#8221; of that purchase, and that when the Jaguar was sold in 2021, more than \u00a347,000 was paid into his personal bank account.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Murrell was arrested in 2023 as part of Operation Branchform, a police investigation into the funding and finance&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-423996","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}