Nicola Sturgeon could keep items her estranged husband Peter Murrell paid for using SNP money unless party sues
Nicola Sturgeon could be allowed to keep gifts bought by her estranged husband Peter Murrell with money stolen from the SNP unless the party takes legal action to get them back, according to a report.
The former prime minister is under increasing pressure to hand over any items purchased with SNP funds after Murrell admitted embezzling nearly £400,000 from the party during his time as chief executive.
Legal experts say hundreds of items removed from Murrell’s indictment under the plea agreement can no longer be seized as proceeds of criminal cases, according to The Times.
The goods, said to be worth around £60,000, include household appliances, luxury cookware and items believed to have been purchased as gifts for Ms Sturgeon.
The more than 700 purchases listed in the indictment include a robot vacuum cleaner, Smeg kitchen appliances, Le Creuset cookware, Robert Welch cutlery and several expensive floor lamps.
Cosmetics, a Dyson hair dryer, GHD stylers and glassware were also removed from the charge sheet following negotiations between prosecutors and Murrell’s legal team.
Although Murrell admitted embezzling £400,000 of SNP funds, legal experts told The Times that most of the items would not be recovered unless the SNP launched a separate civil case.
Nicola Sturgeon could be allowed to keep gifts bought by her estranged husband Peter Murrell (pictured) with money stolen from the SNP, unless the party takes legal action to get them back, according to a report.
The goods, said to be worth around £60,000, include home appliances, luxury cookware and items believed to have been bought as gifts for Ms Sturgeon (pictured)
Mrs Sturgeon, who has repeatedly denied any knowledge of her husband’s offending and was found not guilty following a police investigation, said last week that ‘nothing that belongs to me’ should form part of any process to repay the party.
Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay said: ‘The principle that crime goes unpunished should apply to Nicola Sturgeon, who spent many years reaping the fruits of her husband’s industrial-scale thefts.’
Murrell, 60, will be sentenced June 23 after pleading guilty to embezzlement. The SNP has already confirmed it will be suing in a bid to recover money stolen from the party.
Aamer Anwar, representing Ms Sturgeon, said she was an ‘innocent third party’ under Scottish law and insisted none of the items in question had been ordered by her.
He added that he was cleared of any wrongdoing after a two-year investigation.
It comes after Ms Sturgeon was interviewed by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg last weekend after Murrell admitted stealing more than £400,000 from the party between August 2010 and October 2022.
The court heard how he spent money raised from SNP donors and members on luxury items such as a caravan, coffee machines and a robotic lawnmower.
Mr Yousaf said Sturgeon, who has not been charged with any crime and has always claimed she had no knowledge of Murrell’s actions, appeared to be a ‘pretty broken woman’ as she described the ‘trauma’ she had experienced.
In an interview on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme, Ms Sturgeon said her ex-husband had never explained to her why he had taken the party funds and she felt like he was ‘being punished for a crime I didn’t commit’.
Speaking on BBC News Night, Mr Yousaf described his response to police raids on SNP offices in 2023, shortly after succeeding Ms Sturgeon as party leader, as “completely bewildered” and “furious”.
He added: ‘I think it was day one, maybe day two [of his leadership]I think just before eight o’clock in the morning I got a call to say that SNP HQ had been raided by the police and of course you can imagine my reaction.
‘Meanwhile, we heard that Peter and Nicola’s houses were also raided. And of course the team cooperates fully and allows the police to enter, but we are not allowed to enter while the police are searching.’
Asked whether he believed that Mrs Sturgeon was unaware of her husband’s actions at the time, Mr Yousaf described her as a ‘very honest person’.
He said: ‘Look, I have a bias. I know that Nicola, who spent a lot of time with Nicola over the years, was appointed by Nicola to various government positions.
‘I believe in Nicola because I know that person and I believe she is a very honest person.
‘I thought I saw a pretty broken woman in the interview with Laura Kuenssberg. I thought I saw someone truly suffering as a result of a great betrayal.
‘I’m definitely in the percentage that believes it, but I can understand people’s skepticism. So I’m not surprised by that at all.’
Sturgeon said during the interview that Murrell had no way of knowing how much the items he brought home cost and that he did not ask about the cars and coffee machines that turned up at his home.
He had previously said that both he and his wife earned high salaries and their bank accounts were completely separate from each other.
A long list of items the former SNP leader bought with the stolen money was revealed at a hearing this week after Murrell pleaded guilty to embezzling nearly £400,310.65 from the party.
