Image source, Elizabeth Cook/PA Media

Artist Elizabeth Cook captured the moment judge Lord Young sentenced Peter Murrell to five years and three months in prison for embezzling more than £400,000 from the SNP.

Courtroom sketch artists are rare in any UK courts nowadays, and rarer still in Scotland.

Recent changes in the law meant TV cameras were allowed into the courtroom, albeit with severe restrictions on what they could and could not film.

For example, those watching on the BBC Scotland website and the BBC News Channel were able to see Murrell arrive in the dock, but the camera remained on judge Lord Young while sentencing was delivered.

Image source, Getty Images

Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie says there are still "serious questions which remain about this appalling scandal".

"Such as why Murrell was able to get away with stealing vast sums of money for over a decade and why no-one within the SNP had any curiosity about the state of the party’s finances," she says.

Baillie accuses John Swinney and the SNP of having shamelessly tried to sweep this under the carpet by stubbornly refusing to accept that a parliamentary inquiry could help get to the bottom of these issues.

“If they have nothing to hide, they have nothing to fear from an inquiry."

She says "Swinney's deflection and evasion" confirms the SNP is still a party which fosters a culture of secrecy and cover-up.

Prosecutors considered 516 witness statements and a vast volume of documentary and digital material.

The Standard Prosecution Report (SPR) contained a single charge of embezzlement but within the charge there were hundreds of potentially criminal purchases.

For each prosecutors required evidence that SNP funds had been used; documentation showing what had been bought; the retailer involved; and accounting material capable of showing how the purchase had been recorded within SNP finances.

Further work was also required to establish the earliest criminal transactions and the full value of the embezzlement.

Murrell’s phone was also examined by Police Scotland’s cybercrime unit to assess whether it contained evidence relevant to the case.

Evidence also had to be obtained from overseas retailers through International Letters of Request.

The final report ran to 542 pages and set out the evidence in detail.

Image source, Getty Images

On 5 April 2023 police launched a day of action which resulted in Murrell’s arrest.

It also saw simultaneous raids on his home in Uddingston, South Lanarkshire and SNP headquarters in Edinburgh city centre.

In her memoir Frankly, Nicola Sturgeon recalled her estranged husband getting up after their doorbell went at about 07:00.

She wrote: "It was with a sense of utter disbelief that I realised the police were in my home, that they had a warrant to arrest my husband and search the house."

Orders were obtained during the investigation to secure material held by banking institutions in Scotland and England, retailers in England, HMRC and organisations holding SNP accounting information.

Assistant Chief Constable Stuart Houston told a BBC documentary, Peter Murrell: The Man with the Money, that his officers erected a tent in Murrell’s front garden to shield items from the media.

He said: “We suspected there were items that we would recover within there that you couldn't put into a bag and walk out the door with.”

As a result, a van was backed into the tent so items could be loaded into the vehicle without being seen.

ACC Houston said the move protected the integrity of the investigation.

He also confirmed that the motorhome was traced at Murrell’s mother’s home as it was registered at that address and insured for “social, domestic and commuting purposes”.

Image source, Reuters

Murrell purchased more than 1,000 items over a 12-year period with SNP money.

A number of items were seized when police raided his home in April 2023.

It is worth noting that some of those items were perishable – such as coffee beans – while others are believed to have been gifts.

It is understood the SNP handed back around 20 items from party HQ when the scandal broke, such as luxury pens.

It is separately understood that Sturgeon has not yet been asked to hand back any items she was gifted.

One of the most memorable purchases – Lalique salt and pepper grinders priced at £2,618 – remains unaccounted for.

The police investigation was initially looking into fraud, but as experts ploughed through thousands of transactions, the first red flags started to appear.

It is understood these concerned the purchase of Le Creuset products, including mugs, ramekins, a wine carafe and bottle stopper.

At a time when the party’s finances were lower than normal, the luxury cookware products stood out.

Officers then discovered the items had been mis-coded in the party’s accounts.

This breakthrough helped shift the focus of the inquiry from fraud to embezzlement.

Image source, PA Media

Peter Murrell has left the High Court in Edinburgh in the back of a prison van.

The white van with the branding of prison transport firm GeoAmey on the side pulled out of the garage underneath the court just after 11:30 on Tuesday.

Turning left up Bank Street into bright sunshine, it headed towards George IV Bridge before disappearing from view.

Last month Nicola Sturgeon told the BBC she feels like she is "serving a sentence for a crime I did not commit".

In an exclusive interview with Laura Kuenssberg, Sturgeon refused to apologise for the scandal and struggled to hold back tears, recalling gifts from Murrell that turned out to have been purchased with stolen money.

Sturgeon said: "I am not responsible for the crimes that my former husband committed and I'm not going to apologise for somebody else's crimes."

She has consistently denied any knowledge of Murrell's wrongdoing, committed between 2010 and 2022.

Read more here.

Image source, COPFS

Much has been made of the now-infamous motorhome being parked at Murrell’s mother's then home in Dunfermline.

The £124,000 luxury Niessman and Bischoff motorhome was driven just four miles from Rosyth, before being stored on the driveway.

In an interview with Laura Kuenssberg last month Nicola Sturgeon said she had no "conscious memory" of ever seeing the luxury vehicle.

She said it was "round the sides of the house which is not immediately visible in the way that we went into the home" and "between the house and the next door neighbour's".

Sturgeon told Kuenssberg if she had seen the motorhome she would "probably have assumed it was a neighbour's", adding: "Why would it have crossed my mind that it was the SNP's?"

It is understood Sturgeon’s position remains the same.

The vehicle is now in a Police Scotland car park in Glasgow after being seized during Operation Branchform.

John Brady first met Peter Murrell when they were pupils at Craigmount High School in Edinburgh.

The pair were also in the Boys Brigade, where they got to know future first minister John Swinney.

Murrell had an interest in the independence movement and joined the SNP in his teens.

Brady told a BBC documentary, Peter Murrell: The Man with the Money, that his friend was a talented organiser and said his future role as party chief executive was a “natural fit”.

He said Murrell was an introvert and had “a personality type that lent itself to being in the background”.

Brady didn’t believe the allegations facing Murrell when they were first reported.

He said: “I couldn't, I couldn't, in my wildest dreams, have thought that would happen."

Brady said he was shocked when Murrell pleaded guilty and believes there must be some reason for his behaviour.

He added: “This wasn’t the Peter that I first knew.”

What will happen at the proceeds of crime hearing?published at 11:24 BST

11:24 BST

David Henderson
Scotland news correspondent, at the High Court in Edinburgh

Peter Murrell is heading back to jail but he faces further punishment in the coming months.

And for someone who clearly enjoyed money and the trappings it brought, this could be very painful for him.

He embezzled over £400,000 from the SNP, while he ran its political machine.

So he has profited from this crime. Now he will have to hand over the money to the authorities.

Murrell's proceeds of crime hearing is set to take place on 14 September.

The judge has sweeping powers to confiscate all the funds that Murrell took. This would mean the money goes to the state, to reflect the multi-million pound cost to taxpayers of Operation Branchform.

Or Lord Young could choose to make a compensation order - which would return all the embezzled funds to the victim in this case - the SNP. That's what first minister John Swinney is seeking.

If there's a confiscation order, the SNP would have to sue Murrell for what he owes them.

The courts have already frozen more than £600,000 which belongs to Murrell - two private pension funds and his half share of the family home he shared with Nicola Sturgeon.

So there's plenty of funds to sieze.

Whatever happens, Murrell looks set to lose most - if not all - of his wealth, along with his liberty.

And when he emerges from prison in a few years time, he'll have little or no spare money to spend in retirement.

It's a grim punishment - like something from a work of literature. The greedy man who ends up with next to nothing.

Katie Hunter
BBC Scotland reporter at the High Court in Edinburgh

Peter Murrell is now waiting inside the High Court in Edinburgh for a van to take him back to prison.

As with his arrival, dozens of reporters and camera crews are waiting outside the back of the court.

This is a busy tourist area and some people have been stopping to ask what’s going on here today.

Prosecutors have released 55 images from the investigation into Murrell's embezzlement.

They include new pictures of the £124,550 motorhome parked outside his mother's then home, as well as close-up looks at the luxury bags, watches and pens that Murrell bought illegally.

The pictures were taken by Police Scotland during Operation Branchform, its long-running investigation into the fraud, and shared by prosecutors now the case has concluded.

You can view them here, or search through all the images by using the interactive table below.

The pictures have been separated into seven different categories.

Police Scotland has released clips of officers questioning Peter Murrell following his original arrest.

Detectives ask Murrell what he will say to those who question why SNP cash reserves are so low.

They suggest to Murrell that £19,000 spent on luxury pens alone is an “outrageous amount of money” and ask why the SNP needs to spend that amount of money on luxury pens.

He is also asked if he created a false invoice in order to put the purchase of a Jaguar car through the party’s books as another item.

To each question, Murrell gives the same reply: “No comment”.

Image source, Jeff Overs/BBC

Nicola Sturgeon has released a statement through her lawyer Aamer Anwar, after her estranged husband Peter Murrell was sentenced earlier this morning.

Anwar says Sturgeon remains "angry, hurt and distressed" about the devastating impact of Murrell’s actions on her, his family, friends and the SNP.

The lawyer adds that Sturgeon was deceived and let down by her husband whom she had trusted, and "utterly appalled" by his actions and will never understand why he acted as he did.

The former first minister also "finds it disgraceful and beyond outrageous" that she is being asked to comment on so-called "background" briefings by the police or Crown Office, according to Anwar.

He says: "Whilst anonymous sources have desperately tried to insinuate guilt, it is clear following a two-year gold-plated and robust investigation, Ms Sturgeon was neither charged, prosecuted nor convicted of any offence.

"Ms Sturgeon is innocent of any crime and whilst that might be a source of annoyance for some, it remains a fact that it was Mr Murrell who was charged, tried, convicted and imprisoned for his crimes today."

Police Scotland Assistant Chief Constable Stuart Houston led the force’s four-year investigation into Murrell, codenamed Operation Branchform.

He says the jail sentence is proof that those who “embezzle vast sums of money will not escape justice, regardless of how high a profile or role they may hold”.

ACC Houston says Murrell’s “calculated” crime “proved his disregard for those who placed their trust in him”.

Paul O'Hare
BBC Scotland, at the High Court in Edinburgh

Sean Clerkin - the first person to report concerns about the SNP's funds - claims he was turned away from the first police station where he attempted to file a complaint.

He then attended a second in Barrhead, Renfrewshire, in March 2021 where officers took a statement.

Within five hours he says police were at his door, leading him to believe they were already looking into the SNP’s finances.

Asked if he feels any personal satisfaction, Clerkin says: “Some satisfaction but not complete satisfaction.

“We need to get to the bottom of it. There is a lot more to come out.”

Image source, COPFS

The court previously published 125 pages of documents detailing Murrell's purchases.

BBC Scotland’s data visualisation team has published a searchable database of the items he bought with SNP money from 2010 to 2022.

The largest single transaction, in 2020, was £124,550 for a luxury motorhome paid for entirely with party funds.

Murrell was accused of creating false documents to disguise the payment as a legitimate party expense.

His first major purchase, a £33,000 Volkswagen Golf, was made in early 2016 using £16,489 of SNP money.

He used £57,500 of party cash to buy a Jaguar I-PACE car in 2019, and sold it for £47,378.76 two years later.

Murrell also used SNP funds to purchase two Bremont watches for a total of £9,350, a £4,225 Starwalker World Time fountain pen and a £3,500 Hamilton and Inches silver wine coaster.