Murrell was appointed SNP chief executive in 2001 but his criminal behaviour did not start until nine years later.<\/p>\n
Court documents show that the spending started off at a relatively low level but began to increase in 2013 and 2014, the year of the Scottish independence referendum.<\/p>\n
By 2016 it had risen dramatically with the purchase of more than 100 items worth tens of thousands of pounds.<\/p>\n
Nearly 300 items were purchased in the years covering the Covid pandemic but the level of spending peaked in 2020.<\/p>\n
This was the year Murrell bought a luxury Niesmann and Bischoff Smove 7.4e motorhome for \u00a3124,550.<\/p>\n
The day after buying this vehicle the ex-SNP executive ordered a book titled Take the Slow Road: Inspirational Journeys Round England and Wales by Camper Van and Motorhome \u2013 one of three he bought on the subject.<\/p>\n
In the following months he bought accessories such as awning screw-in pegs for \u00a315.98 and wheel clamps and keys for \u00a3119.98.<\/p>\n
2020 was also the year when the first questions were raised by activists and SNP MPs,<\/a> who asked what had happened to the \u00a3600,000 in donations to the SNP that was meant to be ringfenced for independence campaigning.<\/p>\n The spending continued, but at a much lower rate, after these concerns were raised and in June 2021 Murrell gave the party a loan of \u00a3107,620<\/a>.<\/p>\n Police Scotland launched the Operation Branchform investigation<\/a> into the SNP’s finances the following month.<\/p>\n But the embezzlement only ended in October 2022 with the purchase of two plastic food containers.<\/p>\n