How long will Peter Murrell be jailed for after admitting he embezzled £400,000 from the SNP?

The SNP’s former chief executive, Peter Murrell, has admitted to embezzling more than £400,000 from the party.

Murrell, the estranged husband of former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, pled guilty at the High Court in Edinburgh on Monday when he appeared for a preliminary hearing.

He embezzled funds from the SNP between August 2010 and October 2022, buying a motorhome and luxury goods among numerous items.

Judge Lord Young remanded him in custody, and the former SNP boss was handcuffed. Lord Young told Murrell his actions amounted to a gross breach of trust.

Scotland

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A 126-page indictment details hundreds of things Murrell bought using the £400,000 embezzled funds

He was originally accused of embezzling £459,049, but this was reduced to £400,310.65.

How long will Peter Murrell be jailed for?

There are no formal sentencing guidelines for embezzlement in Scotland, but precedent indicates that for amounts over £100,000, a custodial sentence will be imposed.

In 2024, Michael Paterson was jailed after being found to have exploited his role with Aberdeen City Council to embezzle a total of £1,087,444 from his employer over a 17-year period.

He was sentenced to four years in prison after admitting the crime at the High Court in Edinburgh, and later ordered to repay the council more than £165,000 under Proceeds of Crime laws.

The court also made a compensation order in favour of Aberdeen City Council, ordering that the sum of £104,630.33 recovered as part of the confiscation proceedings was paid to the local authority.

The sum of £417,523 was already recovered by the local authority from Paterson’s pension fund.

In 2023, the office manager of an Edinburgh property firm stole £900,000 through embezzlement and fraud and was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment.

Emma Hunt spent thousands on parties, hotel stays, a five-star Caribbean holiday, cars, and designer goods after stealing money from McLean Properties and fraudulently obtaining money from some of its clients.

She was found guilty after a trial.

In 2022, former SNP MP Natalie McGarry was sentenced to two years in jail after being found guilty of embezzling almost £25,000 from two pro-independence groups.

She was also found guilty after a trial.

Murrell will be sentenced next month.