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

People saying she didn’t know because they had different bank accounts, living separate lives, she was pictured wearing some of the jewellery and pictures using one of the pens.

As for him buying such strange items I was thinking maybe he was looking to sell some of them on. Kind of personal money laundering.

And why is Swinney saying no to an independent investigation? Would he be saying the same if this was people from another party?

The problem with that is that the camper van had been included in the SNP accounts in 2021.

They still haven't clarified how it could have been part of Murrell's embezzlement and declared openly in the accounts. If Sturgeon didn't know where the camper van was she should have been asking where it was.

If I were suspicious I might conclude that they thought it was better to blame Murrell for everything than admit to financial mismanagement, given the concern about the indyref2 funds.

But perhaps there is an explanation.

What an odd comment. Are you never seen wearing or using something given to you? Or do you do a full “proof of funds” check whenever anyone gives you a gift 😅

I was curious about that too. I don’t understand the logic if the camper van story. I know when it first came up it was explained as a “mobile HQ”, but I don’t understand how it was both on the books and part of an embezzlement. Unless it was simply that it was in the books but always intended for personal use?

My gifts come from clubcard points or a 3 for 2. Someone can do a proof of funds on those if they like.

But surely you can comprehend that someone can be given a gift from their high earning partner and not immediately jump to the conclusion that the money for it was embezzled? Because you say that she wore and used them as if it was some kind of gotcha.

I did not say that? Oddd.

Totally my mistake. Apologies 😊

This is why I shouldn’t multitask browsing MN while arguing politics with teens 😁

Different end of the parenty life cycle but I'm currently multitasking badly and procrastinating attempting toddler heat wave bedtime with a hot grumpasaurus. I don't want to adult rn.

That is a bizarre statement. Sturgeon isn’t stupid. She must realise that literally nobody believes one single word of her preposterous claims that she didn’t know about her husband stealing money from the SNP. She either thinks she’s untouchable because she has high level political protection or that everyone else is stupid. Possibly both.

THANK YOU HEN

AHLL BE MAKING NAE FURTHER STATEMENTS

As far as I can see the camper van was still in the accounts in 2024.

Why was nobody asking where the camper van was?

Will be interesting to see what their 2025 accounts look like...

I've just seen a clip of her rushing away from Sky News reporters in Ireland - she gets ushered into the kitchen. Unclear if she actually hid in a fridge.

I wonder if the camper van being both in the accounts and in the embezzlement is anything to do with the “false receipts” the police mentioned in their statement.

Put through the books at X price but actually only cost Y.

Or put through twice - firstly as a credit card payment (as he used that for the deposit) and then an invoice.

I think John Swinney is absolutely at it. Even if he thinks a fully parliamentary inquiry isn’t justified (which is somewhat baffling) then he should at least be explaining the set up of the SNP internal inquiry and the independent people they’ve brought in to do it. The police reports give no clear indication as how how Murrell got away with it and there’s no way that should go unexplained to the public.

NS is in Ireland publicising her memoirs..

That’s gallus to a point that.

It might be as simple as buying it with SNP money, having it recorded as an SNP asset (and depreciated presumably) but registering it in his own name. Though the various reports make revenue to falsified invoices..which could be as simple as the mobile home vendor invoicing Murrell when they registered it to him and him then doctoring the invoice to support a payment from the SNP bank account.

Which then makes me wonder whether the SNP are registered for VAT, and if there are now fraudulent VAT returns reclaiming VAT on things that they never owned… Which then also makes me wonder what the tax treatment of political parties is anyway. Can they claim capital allowances…do they even pay tax? Does someone need to look at the last 12 years of that as well…?!?

Your post was irrelevant

No more irrelevant than yours.

Nobody up here gives two hoots about people's sexuality. We have had several high profile politicians in senior Scottish roles who are not fully heterosexual - Ruth Davidson, Kezia Dugdale, David Mundell, Patrick Harvie to name a few. Nobody cared.

What people DO care about is being lied to and politicians trying to pull the wool over our eyes. We are not daft (well, most of us) and don't appreciate being taken for fools. At the moment, Ms Sturgeon is in the classic Catch-22 which she can't get out of. Either she has to kid on that she and Peter were like any other happily married couple and she knew nothing about his fraud, OR she has to admit that the marriage was a sham, she spent very little time in the marital home and has basically been misleading the electorate about her marriage for over a decade.

It might be as simple as buying it with SNP money, having it recorded as an SNP asset (and depreciated presumably) but registering it in his own name.

But from the point of view of the organisation, they thought they owned (and until recently still owned) the asset and there was nothing to stop anyone from asking to use it or suggesting that it be sold.

I'm trying to think how Murrell could have gained from the camper van purchase, but I can't think how it wouldn't have been noticed that nobody was using the camper van.

From their accounts the SNP is partially VAT exempt because the majority of its income comes from membership fees, grants and donations. It would only be liable for VAT on trading income and only be able to claim VAT for expenses related to trading income. They pay some corporation tax, but most of their income and expenditure isn't relevant.

There might have been some problems with their tax accounting because nobody seemed to be on top of the accounts, but I don't think we are talking about huge sums of money.

I had forgotten about Brian Souter. Yes, he was a large donor, and he did not approve of “gay lifestyles”.

I wonder if it’s as simple as he ordered it in his name, used his SNP credit card to pay the deposit. Then when the balance was due the vendor raised an invoice in his name. And to pay it he had to doctor the invoice so it looked like it was addressed to the SNP, and pay from an SNP account. So yes, the SNP had paid for a camper van, but never had one registered in their name, never took delivery of one and never actually controlled the asset. But because of the way the SNP was(n’t) governed no one noticed, or cared.

If he’d been clever an agressive depreciation policy could have had it written down to zero on SNP books in 4 or 5 years…then nothing left in the accounts, he has the van, the V5 and is in the clear…sort of. Perhaps that was the plan, if it hadn’t been for those pesky journalists 😂

I suppose that the combination of a dodgy credit card expense claim and a doctored invoice plus the transfer of funds were enough to support an embezzlement charge. And to be fair, if that’s what happened it is difficult for him to defend. The smarter thing to do might have been to hide in plain sight and had it registered in and invoiced to the SNP. But just taken the keys and used it!

Interesting on the VAT / tax front - thanks!!

That’s what gets me. It seems he didn’t even use it. So why the hell did he buy it?

And as you say, if he wasn’t going to use it anyway. why not just get it legitimately for SNP and not use it without breaking the law 😅

It must have been a shopping addiction, surely? To risk all of that for tat that he wasn’t going to use, and for relatively little above what was earning (albeit adding up to a large sum over 12 years).

So many questions that still need answers.