Peter Murrell had total control over the SNP cash he stole as the extent of his crime spree is detailed, with items listed as legal fees and campaign costs

By GRAHAM GRANT, SCOTTISH HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR Published: 21:22, 2 June 2026 | Updated: 21:22, 2 June 2026 Former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell passed off his crime spree in the party’s books as campaign overheads, leadership expenses, legal fees – and ‘event merchandise’. He had such a high level of control that he was able to sign off his own expenses as a way of siphoning off SNP cash The goods Murrell illegally obtained included watches costing nearly £19,000 which were found during a raid on the party’s headquarters in 2023. The narrative read out at the High Court in Edinburgh – detailing the full extent of his crime spree – showed how he had been able to orchestrate the fraud with no effective checks on his power. Advocate depute Alan Cameron KC told the court that Murrell, 61, had ‘direct access to the accounting system and could log items of expenditure himself, although the majority of such work was done by another staff member under his direction’.  The highest-profile of these was the purchase a new Niesmann and Bischoff motorhome which he ordered on October 14, 2020 for £124,550. He made three payments totalling £12,500 as a deposit with his SNP charge card, with the balance of £112,050 paid in four direct transfers from the SNP account. The motorhome was delivered to Murrell at the Halbeath Industrial Estate in January 2021 and driven by him to his mother’s home nearby in Dunfermline, Fife, where it remained until it was seized by police on April 5, 2023. The infamous campervan, which Murrell ordered on October 14, 2020 for £124,550  Murrell created a false invoice in the name of the motorhome dealer with the customer address listed as the SNP Headquarters rather than his home address which he had given the dealer – and the account name was changed from ‘Murrell’ to ‘SNP – Murrell’. The description of the vehicle was altered to describe a van rather than a motorhome and many details were removed. The narrative said: ‘When seized by police officers there were no campaign materials or other SNP paraphernalia within and the motorhome was not branded. ‘It was configured exactly as a motorhome used for pleasure would be. The day after he had ordered the motorhome [Murrell] purchased from Amazon three guides to inspirational journeys around Scotland, England and Wales and Ireland in a campervan or motorhome.’ Police also found items in the vehicle which were bought with stolen cash including Le Creuset and Joseph Joseph kitchen implements, an Alessi teapot, and various Molton Brown toiletries. Murrell also bought a new Volkswagen Golf car in 2016. The total paid was £32,989 with part of that ‘being supplied by Murrell in the form of a deposit and the trade-in value of another car’. A silver wine coaster from Hamilton & Inches jewellers was part of the fraud That left a balance of £16,489 which Murrell paid by direct transfer from the SNP account on March 29, 2016. The car was not an SNP asset and was used only by Murrell – he was not entitled to a company car in his role as CEO. He also bought a Jaguar i-Pace which was ordered on September 9, 2019. The total price was £81,277, part of which was funded by trading in the Volkswagen Golf. A deposit of £12,027 was paid by Murrell from his own account. That sum was part of the total received by him ‘as a result of fraudulent expenses claims’. The balance of £57,500 was paid in two transfers from the SNP account on November 1, 2019. This was required as ‘no payment greater than £30,000 could be made from the SNP account’. Murrell created a false invoice in which the name of the car dealer from whom the Jaguar had been purchased was changed from ‘Pentland Jaguar East’ to ‘Pentland Motor Company Ltd’. Murrell also purchased a Robotic Lawn Mower Police also found items in the campervan which were bought with stolen cash including various Molton Brown toiletries The customer address listed was SNP Headquarters rather than his home address – which was what he had given the dealer – and the description of the item purchased was ‘stage payment’. He passed it to the person responsible for adding items to the SNP accounts with a note that it was to be coded under the heading ‘transport’. Murrell claimed the payment was for staging for SNP events and that it had related to a ‘planned national tour of key communicators from the party which had had to be postponed for various reasons, including the Covid-19 pandemic’. He later sold the vehicle, receiving the £47,378.76 proceeds into his personal bank account. In 2017, Murrell made two purchases from CW Sellors of Jura watches using £9,350.25 of SNP funds. He also bought a white Bremont watch for £4,555.25, and a black Bremont watch for £4,795, with transactions recorded on the accounting software as ‘event merchandise’. These watches were found by police during their search of party headquarters in April 2023. Also in 2017, Murrell bought a travel watch roll from Smythson, which sells luxury stationery, leather goods, diaries and fashion products, using £332 of SNP funds. This transaction was recorded on the accounting software under the code ‘staff expenses’ and described as ‘Double Tree The Glasgow City Hotel’. Murrell bought an ‘OXO Good Grips two-piece silicone egg poacher set’ on July 7, 2020 using £23.98 of party funds. This was recorded under the code ‘computer hardware purchases’ – and described as ‘Ethernet cabling’. The narrative said that over more than 12 years Murrell made 383 purchases from Amazon using party charge cards. In total, he spent £42,660.74 on items purchased from Amazon which were ‘not for party purposes’ – with the items ‘mostly delivered to either his home address or to the party headquarters’. He also bought a robotic lawnmower, including installation, costing £3,070. This item was misdescribed in the accounting software as spending on ‘legal fees’ and was found at his home by police. And a ‘hand-chased silver wine coaster from Hamilton & Inches jewellers costing £3,500’ was misdescribed as spending on ‘leadership expenses’. No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.