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

I do find myself wondering whether the salt and pepper grinders last. All mine stop grinding after a couple of refills. I’ve given up on them and just buy the disposable ones. But maybe Lalique is the answer?

I voted YABU due to personal experience of this. Not that amount though. My late father embezzled a huge amount of money from the company he worked for. It was explained away as bonuses, overtime etc etc. Very little went on my Mum or the family but there were occasional splurges on us.

My Mum had no idea until the police arrived one morning looking for him. He wasn’t there, he was elsewhere as he often was.

So it’s possible (but only just) that Nicola had no idea. Especially as she earned well herself. In fact because she earned so well you could argue it have been even less obvious. You could also argue that it should have been more obvious to someone like my Mum who had very little and relied on my Dad while she coped with three small children. Splashes of cash were noticeable …as was the fact he often didn’t come home.

He went to prison, Mum finally got a divorce and remarried later on to a man who did the whole Dad thing that my biological Dad did not.

She was too busy being a feminist to her fingertips innit?

Why did it take so long to realise?

I read it had been happening since 2010 - surely it was being audited regularly.

As for Nicola Sturgeon - awful woman.

I don’t think you’re being unreasonable. I cannot fathom how she had absolutely no idea nor suspicion.

The only defence I can see, is we see enough times on here people going with the flow, and not seeing the obvious red flags that outsiders do. But if she really misjudged his character so catastrophically, that surely brings into question her suitability as a politician. Either way, not a great look for her.

In the same house, though. The journalists would have spotted if she wasn't living where she said she was.

This is about where I am. I think it's possible as both a wife and a party leader she closed her eyes to what was happening in her home and in her party. Culpable either way, is my feeling.

She was his boss, though, he effectively worked for her. She was leader of the party he was keeping the accounts for.

🤣🤣🤣

And these guys want to run an independent Scotland?!

I agree with you. She's a politician, hardly naive. She must have known, or at least been suspicious.

Funny how the trial and the guilty plea was just a few days after the election.

I don’t know. DH and I are both high earners but I would certainly notice if random, massively expensive shite started appearing in my house? DH couldn’t buy/lease a car without me being aware of how we were paying for it, but then again we share all money and always have. If they had totally separate accounts and lived totally seperate lives, then maybe?

Such feminism.

It's pretty damning, isn't it?

But of course, not sufficient to prosecute. I don't think it's fair to criticise MNers for believing that she's guilty when stuff like that happened, as one or two posters have.

This news is so old it must almost be antediluvian.
Why is it being resurrected now?

She was the boss of an organisation that lost £400k through embezzlement. Auditors raised red flags and resigned en masse. She did nothing.

She is either grossly incompetent or complicit in a crime.

Ian Murray? The Labour MP?

We can tell you don't follow the news.

He pleaded guilty yesterday at the court case.

This might fly if she were merely the wife but she was also in charge of the organisation he stole it from.

So what about her professional responsibility? How did she not know when auditors and those in charge of the accounts were resigning because they were denied access?

And if she didn't know, why isn't that negligence?

This

Again, how do you account for her professional culpability then?

Not knowing what your husband does is one thing. Not knowing what the chief executive of the party you lead does? Downright scandalous.

They should never have been allowed to hold both posts. That's corrupt in itself.

That's a good point and it wouldn't be allowed in business unless they owned the business.

For those trying to defend her, she angrily defended the finances, telling colleagues to stop asking questions about the finances, didn’t seem perturbed when colleagues resigned from the audit committee due to lack of financial transparency and signed off on the accounts when their auditor refused to do so.

Anyone with a modicum of intelligence would have started to ask questions long ago rather than continuing to ignore the big red flags.

Further, this money has been stolen from the party faithful, most of whom are not the typical rich benefactors but ordinary people, however she did not even mention them in her woe is me statement yesterday. She is rotten to the core.

She didn't do well with covid - there were far more deaths in Scotland.