Back to Scotland, where the police probe into the SNP’s funds and finances continues to rumble on. Now it transpires that prosecutors are looking into findings that suggests a non-existent company was paid for refurbishment work carried out at SNP HQ. More than £100,000 was coughed up for work on a ‘media suite’ in the party’s Edinburgh office – yet officers are probing evidence that suggests the company paid wasn’t, um, real.
The SNP’s 2020 accounts detail the party paid £615,000 to refurb the party’s offices, with the money going on upgraded furniture and tech. One source told the Sunday Mail that:
One of the biggest items being looked at is a six figure sum which on paper appears to have been spent creating a media suite at the Edinburgh offices. There are receipts but it is unclear whether the company named on receipts really existed.
As things stand the total amount of potential embezzlement is around half a million pounds so this is very serious stuff. The police have handed over their findings to prosecutors and it is in their hands now. It is unlikely to be too much longer before we see movement on this.
How curious. The Sunday Mail’s revelation accompanies reports that last year a high street bank raised concerns over suspicious transactions connected with the Scottish National party. ‘The bank was acting in line with its legal duty,’ another source told the paper, adding: ‘Contacting the police was a precursor to contacting the account holders to ask them to explain the transactions. However the police made it clear they were aware and no further action would be required from the bank.’
Operation Branchform was initially focused on how a ‘missing’ sum of money raised for an indyref2 campaign was spent, with the Nats found to have less than £100,000 in their accounts at the end of 2019 – despite raising £600,000. The revelation led to at least 19 criminal complaints being recorded and a police probe beginning in 2021. After the investigation started, it emerged that Peter Murrell (husband of Nicola Sturgeon and former chief executive of the party) had also lent the nationalists £107,000 to help with ‘cash flow’ issues. How very interesting.
In 2023, forces staged a police raid of both the Sturgeon-Murrell home and SNP HQ, with the SNP’s former Dear Leader, her husband and the party treasurer all being arrested in connection with the probe. In the meantime, it rather bafflingly emerged that a luxury motorhome was also being looked into, the purchase of which Mr S revealed the party’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn knew nothing. Now Murrell has been charged with embezzlement of party funds – while the latest party accounts show he is still owed £60,000 of his loan. Ouch.
Steerpike found this week that Operation Branchform remains ongoing after almost 1,200 days – with Sturgeon herself still under investigation. Police Scotland passed its latest report to Scotland’s Crown Office on 9 August, with prosecutors currently in the process of reviewing the findings. For the SNP’s part, a party spokesperson insists: ‘While the police investigation has reportedly been completed and passed over to the Crown Office, the case remains active and it would be inappropriate to comment on anonymised speculation, or about the party’s legal position.’ Some have suggested that the police probe is picking up pace however, and that it won’t be long before further developments come. Stay tuned…
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