Peter Murrell embezzlement trial

[Sunnnyday]

Peter Murrell is in court in Edinburgh today. This is for the preliminary hearing which was postponed from before the election. It will be interesting to see how the criminal proceedings proceed.

www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/peter-murrell-arrives-at-court-ahead-of-hearing-on-embezzlement-charges/ar-AA23Ybuy?ocid=msedgntp&pc

There is the video of her telling folk to shut up and stop asking questions about the finances. Pretty fishy when her husband was siphoning money off.

Is she saying he had a secret bank account? Where actually did the money go? Surely she would see the money coming from.their joint account if she thought their wages were buying the camper van etc?

Yes he did it but I’m sure many others were actually aware. No he’s not the victim, you are right but still it seems like he has been set up to take the fall for all others that were complicit. I was being a little too simple with it. I think NS should take the blame too. How could you not find it weird that a mobile home suddenly turned up.

Or was he buying them for someone else?

He’s chosen to stay silent on others. He hasn’t been set up in any way.

I would assume he’s chosen this because it’s likely there would be many embarrassing things, and possibly even more crimes uncovered, if everyone involved had to start giving their evidence publicly.

He’ll do a couple of years in jail, come out and no doubt be paid handsomely for selling his story. Possibly even be looked after by the many people he has protected (given her role in the party I actually I think there will be others far more complicit than NS - many others had much more oversight of the finances than her).

He’s actually choosing to not share the whole story with the Scottish people.

How many years is he looking at? He's not a young man.

They probably don't have joint bank accounts. My husband and I are high earners, we don't.

Although having said that I'd be surprised if he suddenly bought a camper van.

I'm glad this happened to him but it's a pity he didn't take others down with him.

I remember when the footage of their house/street first emerged. Until that point, I'd been fed on stories that Nicola was shacking up with her lover in a BoFA sandstone mansion with turrets, a duck pond, and a moat. So you can imagine the crushing disappointment of reality dawning.

He was born in 1964. Perhaps he should have thought a few years back about how he wanted to spend his life after leaving the SNP. Semi-retirement - fishing, golf, walking, whatever else he does in his spare time - holidays - a bit of voluntary work - a few paid appointments to supplement his pension - Countdown, OAP rates at the cinema - and so on. Or banged up with career criminals.

Oh 😂 yes I also heard she was in Bridge of Allan with "someone"😳

Criminal law isn't my thing but he's been remanded in custody pending sentencing. Isn't that unusual for a first time offender for a non violent crime? Is that because the Court thinks he's a flight risk or is that in anticipation of a custodial sentence being imposed?

It wasn't known till today that he was going to plead guilty. It's unfortunate to say the least that this wasn't being discussed as part of the pre-election campaigning. I have my own reasons for regarding the SNP as utterly incompetent and verging on corrupt (Arran ferry). I have to concede, though, that if they were doing brilliantly in all other areas I'd agree they were unlucky there. But this Murrell plea today confirms that the SNP is unable even to run its own finances in a competent way that safeguards money donated by their supporters. How can any Scot believe they will do better with the national budget?

Prospect of a custodial sentence, really the only option

This was a plea hearing. He’s pleaded guilty. This isn’t the trial. He’s on remand in prison awaiting the trial. He will get a lower sentence if he pleads guilty I expect. I am surprised he’s not on bail. He’s surely not a flight risk and he’s not dangerous. So that did surprise me.

My DH earned a lot but I knew where the money was and where it came from. He’s obviously had accounts NS didn’t know about. If you want to hide money, that’s what you do! It’s perfectly possible she did not know about the camper van. It was parked at his mother’s. Did she go there and ever see it? I guess she didn’t go on holiday in it? If she did, then she surely would have wondered whose it was? Although I guess Murrell could have said it was on loan.

There clearly were insufficient checks on finances in the snp. Very poor and unacceptable. Bigger fools them and any decent accounting would have seen what he was doing over a 12 year period. Yet the voters vote for them. Cheats and liars are everywhere of course but financial responsibility is non negotiable.

The good thing is that this has happened the day before John “I knew nothing” Swinney moves his motion on independence tomorrow.

Surely anyone except the faithful can now see what a disaster that would be

@MeetMeOnTheCorner there won’t be a trial as he’s plead guilty.

So he’s remanded for sentence. At that point a plea in mitigation will be made on his behalf but there will be no witnesses called, or anything like that

No witnesses will be called or evidence heard. He pled guilty and is remanded in custody pending sentencing.

Ah right. So a guilty plea avoids a trial. Doesn’t that circumvent the party knowing exactly what happened? I’m amazed he’s remanded in custody though. They must have a lot of space in Scottish prisons.

It's interesting that in the BBC news story they say "He used the money to buy luxury goods, jewellery, cosmetics, two cars and a motorhome". Who are the cosmetics for? What about the jewellery? I see they're giving out some of the specifics but it would be interesting to see if the cosmetics are ones that Nicola used? He doesn't seem a flamboyant man who would wear cosmetics or much jewellery.

The whole of the SNP is at fault for having such a badly structured system. A married couple should never have been the leader and in charge of finances. It's not allowed in most companies, charities etc for a reason. I find it difficult to believe that Nicola didn't notice anything strange, unless they were living completely separate lives, but even then things like a campervan surely would be noticed?

There won't be a trial he is to be sentenced next month according to the 2pm radio news.

You would be remanded after a guilty plea if you were definitely getting the jail, sentence backdated to the date of the plea

At least one company of auditors resigned

I didn’t know that about companies, interesting and makes sense

Scotland is also really small, especially in political circles, so I’d be amazed if there was no chatter and gossip about these gifts and missing money

It’s well known about their Lavender marriage and Murrell has allegedly dodgy habits