SNP chief Peter Murrell's police interviews released

Clips of Peter Murrell being questioned by police have been released after the former SNP chief executive was jailed for embezzling more than £400,000 from his party.

Murrell, the estranged husband of former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, embezzled funds from the SNP between August 2010 and October 2022.

The 61-year-old used the money to buy numerous items – including a motorhome and luxury goods – and to purchase two cars.

On Tuesday, Murrell was sentenced to five years and three months in prison.

Scotland

Peter Murrell jailed for five years and three months for embezzling £400,000 from SNP

Nicola Sturgeon’s estranged husband previously admitted to stealing over £400,000 from the SNP

Interviews conducted by detectives working on Operation Branchform with Murrell on April 18, 2024, have now been released.

Police questioned him on his purchases, his methods, his use of Amazon and if he had anything to say to members of the SNP who had donated their money to the party.

Throughout, Murrell answers only: “No comment.”

The £81,000 Jaguar

Police interviewer: You created that false invoice so you could account for the purchase of a Jaguar motor vehicle through the party’s books as something else, that’s the case, isn’t it, Peter?

Murrell: No comment

Police: I’ll take you back to the definition of embezzlement. The accused, in order to conceal his defalcations, usually makes false entries in the books or omits to make entries. Here we have false entries through the zero-count system, here we have a forged document…

More than £19,000 in luxury pens

Police: Of that amount, over £19,000 is exclusively on pens alone. It’s quite frankly an outrageous amount of money to be spending on pens, in my opinion. What about your opinion?

Murrell: No comment.

Police: You bought them. You must have an opinion on them, Peter.

Murrell: No comment.

Police: What does the SNP need over £19,000 in luxury pens for?

Murrell: No comment.

‘Amazon, Amazon, Amazon’

Police: Amazon are the perfect foil for you because they are a retailer that can hide transactions behind because they sell everything. So you can describe it as anything and they deliver quicker. But easy to hide, easy to miscode, easy to buy things and call them something else if you buy them on Amazon. And you spread the Amazon transactions across three cards because see if all your Amazon purchases were on your own card, it would just be Amazon, Amazon, Amazon. It would be non-stop. You would probably max out your card after a while, got to spread it across all three. That is why you use Amazon so much, isn’t it?

Murrell: No comment.

‘Anything to say to SNP members?’

Police: It was about your gain, your behaviour and embezzlement must have had a negative impact on the business. There must have been decisions that couldn’t be made because the cash reserve was so low. And part of the reason they’re low is your thieving of them. What would you say to those people, those members, who asked you about that?

Murrell: No comment.

Police: What are you going to say to them when they ask you about it?

Murrell: No comment.