Nicola Sturgeon didn't know her husband stole £400,000

[Imdunfer]

Really? She lived with this guy and didn't know? She had a camper van parked on the drive and didn't know he stole the money to buy it?

I don't buy it.

AIBU

Surely then there should also be questions about Salmond, and even Swinney (from his first stint), given Murrell was CEO under their leadership.

NS wasn’t running the country for the entire period 2010-2022 that police Scotland have stated in their statement.

same with the finance committee that quit - that was one year, and after the journalist had flagged issues in the 2019 finances - what about the committees from the previous years, where were their questions?

She claims the campervan was never on her drive and reports were wrong?

I don't know the truth of it, obviously, but if she was really oblivious, I bet there's another woman involved.

I do think it might be possible she didn't know, in those circumstances. She wouldn't have seen a lot of the stuff, some of it is things you'd never have dreamt cost what they did, and I don't think owning a Jaguar (for example) would be particualy unusual in their earnings bracket.

I know she was wearing the necklace, but that wasn't expensive in the scheme of things, and purchased in a shop they visited together while campaining.

I think the implication is that it was on her mother in law’s drive and she never visited her.

Would you know what it was though.

DH might come home with a coffee machine or a pen. It wouldn't occur to me he'd have spent that much on them. I didn't even know it was possible!

...then more and more items, expensive and wide ranging.
You'd be suspicious!

I agree that there should be questions about all of the people who were responsible for financial controls at the SNP over the period.

Could Scotland make a go of it as an independent country? I don’t think it’s impossible. Could Scotland make a go of it as an independent country set up by these people? Not a chance in hell.

Really? I am Scottish but don’t live there. None of my friends or family have any time for her but I always got the impression she was very popular. Has her behaviour around this scandal affected her popularity?

He went into a jewellers in Shetland with Nicola and said to the assistant "I'm the man with the money" so he obviously liked bragging about it.

That sounds like something my Dad might say as a joke, when something needs paying for. I agree it could be nasty boasting, but also in the moment it could be just an off the cuff remark.

If stealing £400k from private donations to a specific party is the height of Scottish political corruption I'd argue we have the least corrupt system in the world.

Chapeau

I think there’s a huge danger that the involvement of other people will be forgotten because the focus is so much on NS.

John Swinney has been very prominent for the entire time of Murrells placement.

Even the likes of Joanna Cherry - she and the Keres are being praised for quitting the finance and audit committee but that was after the journalist flagged issues so unless that was their first sitting on the committee then where were their questions the year before? And the year before that? And how come the journalist asked questions first?

The questions that should be answered shouldn’t be forgotten in the questioning of Sturgeon.

Bollocks they are at pains to point out separate finances. So I’m him in that I earn £100k, if I signed a lease on a 70k car or a £100k motor home my other half would definitely be asking questions.

Oh I agree absolutely, @JustAnotherWhinger. But as this thread is about Nichola and how much she must have known, that's why I commented about her and what she must have known.

But the Police cleared Sturgeon and the SNPs treasurer, so if Sturgeon is guilty and its so obvious, then the only conclusion is the Police are corrupt too, along with the entire justice system as the verdict given AFTER elections

All that suggests is that she did nothing criminal. She didn't have her hand in the till too. But you cannot prove what someone knew. That's information held in their heads.

The whole thing stinks. The repeated denials that there was an issue, even after the members of the audit committee resigned. NS signing off the accounts when the auditors wouldn't. The timing of this hearing, moved from before the elections until after. Who pulled strings? Or managed, by not submitting evidence in time, not being ready for the original date or whatever, to adjourn it until now.

Nobody was cleared because there wasn’t a trial.

Her defence seems to be incompetence which isn’t criminal, but does suggest that she was in the wrong job.

This, given that it was over a 12 year period and things like the car and the motorhome could have been explained away as being leased/pcp. Other purchases could have been explained away as being made on a credit card and that he'd incurred a lot of debt.

But it does raise serious governance and audit issues.

NS didn't sign off the acoounts. An external auditor did. The "auditors" who resigned were ordinary members who were elected onto the NEC. They were not professional accountants!

The idea she suspected absolutely nothing about his, now admitted, thefts does push the limits of credibility.

A few packets of post-its from your work’s stationery cupboard might be one thing, but a motorhome, expensive car and eye-wateringly expensive coffee machines are another.

And like PPs have suggested, there are questions to be answered by the wider SNP executive and the Party’s auditors. They either turned a blind eye or were astonishingly lax in fulfilling their legal obligations.

There wasn't a triaL as she was CLEARED OF ANY CHARGES.

The professional auditors quit as well.

Yes, as they were downsizing. They got new ones who approved the accounts. Plus that was a completely different year. The year the three MEMBERS left the accounts were approved by the extrnal auditor.

'Cleared' is normally a term reserved for someone who's gone through a trial and been found Not Guilty. That's not what's happened here. It may be that the police found not a scintilla of evidence against NS and she is blameless, if utterly clueless and a poor judge of character. It may also be that they were getting absolutely nowhere as she answered 'No comment' to every question and as they had PM bang to rights they decided to settle for getting him locked up. Two rather different set ups.

Poor, poor Nicola - what a quandary:

a) Admit she did know
b) Admit she spent so little time in the house that she didn't notice all the stuff
c) Admit that she spent some time in the house but didn't notice all the stuff so he must have given it all to friends/family

I do wonder if the campervan was intended as a wee love nest for Murrell and whoever but Covid scuppered the plans.

Yes, she was cleared by the police so there was no trial. But my point stands - you can't prove what someone did or didn't know unless there's a paper trail.