{"id":653703,"date":"2026-06-23T09:07:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T09:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/653703\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T09:07:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T09:07:10","slug":"former-snp-chief-peter-murrell-sentenced-to-five-years-and-three-months-for-embezzling-party-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/653703\/","title":{"rendered":"Former SNP chief Peter Murrell sentenced to five years and three months for embezzling party funds"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Analysis\"This is Murrell’s chance to explain himselfpublished at 09:20 BST<\/p>\n

09:20 BST<\/p>\n

\"\"David Henderson
Scotland news correspondent, at the High Court in Edinburgh<\/p>\n

What\u2019s most striking about the Crown\u2019s account of
\nMurrell\u2019s crimes is his sheer doggedness \u2014 the cynical calculation and deceit
\nthat ran right through his actions.<\/p>\n

It lays bare how he exploited his trusted access to the
\nSNP\u2019s books to line his own pockets by just about every route available: credit
\ncards, party charge cards, and straight transfers of cash.<\/p>\n

That perhaps goes some way to explaining how the party\u2019s
\nauditors, its officials, and even his estranged wife Nicola Sturgeon seemingly
\nfailed to notice what he was up to over so many years.<\/p>\n

He fed bogus figures into the accounts, passing off the
\nmoney he was siphoning away as run-of-the-mill party spending. It was
\nconvincing enough key people, often enough, to let him make off with more than
\n\u00a3400,000.<\/p>\n

So it’s clear how he committed these crimes. <\/p>\n

But “why” is anything but clear. <\/p>\n

He still hasn\u2019t accounted for himself, and the Crown
\nnarrative offers no clue. <\/p>\n

Murrell has had the chance to explain his actions through
\nthe background report prepared by social workers to help the court decide on
\nsentence.<\/p>\n

And his defence counsel may offer some explanation at
\nthis hearing.<\/p>\n

But Murrell may choose to say nothing, and leave the
\ncourt and the rest of us to guess his motives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is Murrell’s chance to explain himselfpublished at 09:20 BST 09:20 BST David HendersonScotland news correspondent, at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-653703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653703","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=653703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}