SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

This is long overdue its own topic; to be fair to the independence cause (and I suppose we have to), independence ≠ the SNP and vice versa, so the hatchet job Mr & Mrs Murrell have done on the SNP doesn’t directly address the question ‘will Scotland leave the UK?’

Having said all of that, I may get this framed:

https://www.cableforum.uk/board/atta...1&d=1686491532

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

Only taken nearly 2 years of investigation.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

Fraud investigations are notoriously complex. If any of this eventually gets to trial, pity the 15 good persons and true who have to sit on the jury for it.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

Released without charge.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

It would have been something momentous had they charged her with anything today. Rotten timing for wee Humza though, all evidence of his big set-piece sit-down with Laura K. has been wiped from the news agenda at a stroke. :rofl:

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

Good news for Johnson though. Who’d have thought a former Prime Minister resigning as an MP in disgrace and a former First Minister arrested on the same weekend. I might frame both given how unlikely such a set of circumstances must be.

Would be interesting to know if such a similar trend of events has happened anywhere in the world over a single weekend in equivalent federal structures.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

The thought of wee Krankie being clapped in irons is rather satisfying. :D

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

:LOL:

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

This has been doing the rounds this afternoon. :D

https://www.cableforum.uk/board/atta...1&d=1686507795

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

Link
When the allegations first arose, the normal reaction would be to ask those likely in the know. From that, various people in the SNP should now know where the money went. Possible that the money wasn't ring-fenced and ended up in general funds. If that is the case, they should own up.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

Nothing will happen to her.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

If only she’d eaten a cake, there’s no coming back from that kind of crime.

She’ll probably get away with massive fraud

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

…Pending investigation.

---------- Post added at 20:20 ---------- Previous post was at 20:19 ----------

Boris was never arrested. Just fined for a minor misdemeanour- a trumped up one at that.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

It’s worth pointing out that you can’t be arrested for questioning unless the police have reasonable suspicion that you may have committed an arrestable offence. Arresting her wasn’t some procedural nicety, it was deliberately more serious than asking someone to assist voluntarily. Don’t be taken in by the spin Nippy’s press release has tried to put on this - all this talk of her voluntarily attending a police station at a pre-agreed time is designed to draw your attention from the legally significant fact that she was put under arrest when she got there.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

Isn’t everyone released “pending investigation”? Unless they routinely close 2 year old cases at the exact moment they release the final person to be arrested, without the need to consult other agencies or higher ranking officers. On a Sunday at 5pm.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

No, I believe police can release someone with an indication that no further action will be taken, though that notification is likely to follow days or weeks afterwards. I lack personal experience here. :D

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

General enough to include a £110,000 motor home? Hmm.

---------- Post added at 23:30 ---------- Previous post was at 22:19 ----------

And Trump indicted again too. This trio of self-serving pesky populists are not finding the going good at the moment. ;)

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

HAhahahahahahahahahah

Sorry. Shouldn’t laugh.

But

Hahahahahahahahahaha

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

Murrell has finally appeared in court for a bail hearing with regard to his embezzlement charge, almost a year later.

And Polis Scotland have - finally - admitted they’re no longer investigating Wee Nicola, or the former SNP party treasurer, Colin Beattie, over these matters.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y2z4qq6zzo

Something about this stinks to high heaven - how it can take almost a year from charge to a bail hearing says nothing good about the way justice is handled in Scotland. And the fact that yet another aspect of the Scottish public sector can’t get its act together slightly reduces my level of sympathy for Nicola Sturgeon, who has been kept hanging on seemingly by the same institutional incompetence.

Obviously if she is not being charged with anything she - and we - should have been told about it a long time before now. But hey, she and her gang have run the ship aground whilst they were busy with their usual obsessions instead of keeping watch, so :shrug:

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

Are we really meant to believe she had no idea of whatever her husband is alleged to have done?
He gave the party a £107,620 loan. Did she not ask where he got the money from? Did she not ask where the £600,000 went to?

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

All good questions, but questions we will not get satisfactory answers to now. Some of it will doubtless come out in court when Murrell finally goes on trial. My suspicion is that he has agreed to fall on his own sword for her and will state under oath exactly those things - that he did it in such a way as to shield his party leader (and wife) from blame.

On reflection, there was never much chance of Nicola falling on any swords. She’s just not that sort of person.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

It’s also worth adding that Sturgeon is lying when she says “there was never a scrap of evidence against me.” A file was sent to the Crown Office (the Scottish CPS), which in procedural terms only happens when there is sufficient evidence to do so. Police send off the file, someone else then decides if there is *enough* evidence for a charge.

So, yes, Nicola, there was in fact a whole dossier of evidence against you. Not enough for you to end up in court, but let’s not pretend there was never a reasonable suspicion that you were up to no good.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

Try not to sound too gutted mate.

Nicola is innocent, end of :)

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

Nicola has not been charged with a crime. But to quote Mr Bridger: “Freddie, everybody in the world is bent.” ;)

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

If my husband/partner of decades had been accused of embezzling money from the political party I’d dedicated almost my entire adult life to I’d probably not hang around a Glasgow comedy festival and probably be quite visibly angry about it.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

It’s also worth remembering that when Alex Salmond was acquitted, Sturgeon fulminated that just because a jury decided his actions did not amount to criminality, it didn’t mean that he didn’t do the things he’d been accused of. Ironic, really, that she’s demanding a level of understanding that she refused to give her old boss.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

Indeed, Salmond facing a jury and (some) witness testimony being entirely discredited wasn’t enough it was insisted upon that the smear remained. Even in his death some of her followers insisted upon dragging his name through the mud.

Also the complete mishandling of the internal investigation cost the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds in the process.

Her angry wee video telling everyone to stop asking about money should be played in televised obituaries to her.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

So the Sun has got hold of the indictment sheet ahead of the next hearing in the Murrell case, which is due next week. We now know the amount in question is £459,000. The Motorhome wasn’t the only big-ticket item he’s accused of buying with party funds. Nicola is of course no longer being pursued by the polis, who seem satisfied she neither knew nor asked where all the £100s of 1,000s worth of shiny new stuff in her house kept coming from.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg7erzygx52o

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

One Murrell down, one still to go.
He's pled guilty.
Any news on the missing £600,000 indyref2 money? It was that investigation that uncovered the other missing £400,000.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

I suspect the £400,000 embezzled by Mr Sturgeon is what’s left of that money. The rest presumably papered over the cracks in the party finances for legitimate spend.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

when he funded his lavish lifestyle with stolen money did he just spend it on himself or was he living with another person who benefited from his crime,i only ask because you would have to be either blind or incredibly stupid to not realise the boost in household income.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

The fraud started in 2010, which was 7 years before the indyref2 money came in. He had the cheek to give the party a £100K loan.
If the indyref2 money hasn't been found, then Operation Branchform should still be ongoing. That is it's purpose. Weird to think that without the complaints about the indyref2 money, his fraud wouldn't have been uncovered.
In theory, the SNP could be asked to hand back the £600K of indyref2 money.

---------- Post added at 12:54 ---------- Previous post was at 12:50 ----------

There's 125 pages of what he bought.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

There was no side pot of £600k, the SNP simply don’t have it to “give” back.

I appreciate some gave the impression that there was/is such a thing. The extent to which it covered for, and was extracted by, Mr Sturgeon could probably be established. But the idea it’s sitting there for people to claim back is for the birds.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

A fool and his money are soon parted, and anyone who ever thought there would be another Scexit referendum within 30 years of the last one is a fool, doubly so if they hand over their hard-earned to the shower of useless district councillors that call themselves the SNP. Mind you, constantly keeping the Ultras on tenterhooks is what pays for the party (literally) - as we will doubtless see once again over the next week or so, while we get the SNP’s latest, entirely performative ‘Indy debate’ in the shortbread senate over and done with.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

The Treasurer claimed it was ring-fenced and not spent.But the donors could ask for it back. That is why the complaints started.
If it all went into general funds, the SNP didn't declare those donations.
If the SNP do get their way and there is an indyref2, where are they going to get the money from? Would those same donors, donate yet again?

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

They could ask, but it isn't there.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

They would still have to give it back.


He didn't just go for big purchases, eg £11 on 2 washing up bowls, £3.60 on shower cleaner.
630 purchases listed.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

Nicola "I will be making no further comment" lasted a mere 4 hours before further comment. Interesting.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

there's a house that can be sold

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

A worthwhile read (with apologies to those not on X) from Sam Taylor who heads up a unionist think tank These Islands in Edinburgh.

https://x.com/staylorish/status/2059...967113374?s=20

Where did the ring fenced money go? The 2017 General Election campaign. Who knew? Everyone. Who made off with his loot during the cover up of that story? Pete whose biggest years were 2019 and 2020. Prior to 2015 his embezzlements all amounted to single figure thousands per year.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

One of the deeply annoying things about all this is that it makes ‘Rev’ Stu Campbell (a.k.a. Wings Over Scotland) look like a credible, competent operator, despite his being responsible for one of the most egregious pieces of magical thinking of 2014 (his ‘Wee Blue Book’, part of the wider indyref campaign that year). That and his annoyingly funny interventions in the ongoing Twitter fight-back against Genderwoo, but that’s for the other thread.

Taylor’s analysis here is persuasive, and it does answer the pressing question of how Nippy Sturgeon could really think we’d buy her claims that she had no idea what was going on. As Taylor puts it, her claims are plausible because she was already looking the other way, trying to cover up something ‘merely’ dishonest rather than outright criminal.

For me one of the more entertaining things about this week was how Murrell more or less torpedoed any coverage of Tuesday’s performative debate and vote on the latest indyref that won’t happen.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

I hope Mr Anwar is getting paid by the word as he's onto his third (by my count) statement since his client, Ms Sturgeon, said she had nothing more to say on the matter.

Irony overload since Sturgeon and her supporters were happy to continue to imply the guilt of Alex Salmond for crimes for which he had actually been cleared.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

She could've have had daily discussions with her husband over the fraud and nobody else would know about it. Just having no proof, is not necessarily complete exoneration.
Didn't she notice they were buying a new coffee machine each year?

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

The armchair sleuths that Mr Anwar disapproves of are pondering was he buying these as gifts for other people (who? Why?) or subsequently selling items to get cash (again, for what purpose?).

Some of the SNP payroll mouthpieces on social media initially deployed the “why would she?” card - she had a well paying job, prestige, fame to an extent etc. The same, to an extent, would apply to him. He’d never be the elected public face of a party, but for roles pulling the strings in the background in steering the direction of the party, the people, perhaps even the policies (not alone, but as a group). He had that too - a well paying job for over twenty years.

Something doesn’t add up that the guy had a penchant for expensive pens and coffee machines. The guy doesn’t even have a fancy pair of spectacles.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

Why spend £3.60 of your own money on shower cleaner, when the SNP can pay for it. That's how trivial some of the purchases were.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

It’s quite bizarre it’d have been good to have a trial to find out. Fingers crossed for public inquiry. Not like Mr Anwar to be opposed to one of those!

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

Is there a pattern to the smaller purchases. Was he addicted to theft and hope he would get caught? This does not look like rational behaviour for a successful thief.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

Not really. Just seems to a case of which card he used.
The campervan is the odd purchase. Couldn't use it or sell it without attracting attention. Some items were obviously presents for a couple of kids(two kids scooters, two XBox 360s). Other items may have been bought as gifts.
We should hear more details next week.
Strange to think the fraud could've still been going on if nobody had complained about the indyref2 donations.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

Thanks. The controls in the SNP seem very weak.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

They indeed were, weak is generous they are non-existent.

I suspect now Swinney is terminally harmed, just as Starmer is wailing on the ropes at the end of his premiership there is no way Swinney can survive medium to longer term.

The ambitious Mr Flynn, relatively unscathed by this, might see summer recess as an opportunity to pragmatically offer 'the party' the opportunity to draw a line under the affair. What did he know? When? Probably very little.

Easy to bat away that he was in London. Not true of his most likely opponents in a leadership contest. Some of whom would be close advisers, confidants and proteges of the now disgraced Ms Sturgeon.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

I imagine at this point, Swinney’s blindly assuming that the threat of a Scotland Office-led inquiry is grist to the nat grievance mill, but he needs to be a bit careful. The SNP garnered about a third of the votes the other week and is sitting on a plurality because of a quirk of the system (a quirk designed to keep Labour in power, to be fair). There’s no reason to believe public opinion will rally to his cause if it looks like an SNP first minister is refusing to have the SNP-led Parliament investigate a scandal that taints a former SNP chief executive, a former SNP first minster and other members of a former SNP cabinet in which Swinney himself served.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

oh come on who hasn't bought a motor home and a couple of new cars...... without the other half noticing:erm:

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

To be honest, the wife seems to have a magic wardrobe where new shoes, handbags & dresses keep appearing, but I'm pretty sure I'd notice the arrival of anything that sits in the drive and blocks me getting the car out :D

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

My guess is this would massively backfire for Swinney. It would also rely on all of their stories holding up for a sustained period. No Comment Nicola is finding this is extremely challenging every time she opens her mouth this week.

It’s easier to manufacture grievance if the perceived injustice is against the people of Scotland. The UK squandering Scotland’s energy wealth, pesky UKG blocking the genderwoo Bill on a technicality (their sell, not my position), etc.

In this case Murrell has been caught with his hand in the till and when anyone pointed out the till was short they got told they couldn’t look any more by Sturgeon and others. For me it’s this detail, verifiable in meetings on record, public appearances, etc. that is the fatal blow more than flash cars, coffee machines, handbags.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

No comment Nicola on Kuessenberg tomorrow. Sick bucket at the ready.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

Should at least some of any Proceeds of Crime Act also apply to her? After all, she benefited financially from not having to pay her share of household expenses and for things that seem to have been gifts for other people. Eg Not likely that the two Vtriker kids scooters were for them. That should help the total sum recovered.

Even though she claims it was all him, both of them had higher bank balances as a result of SNP funding their household. Although that might be seen as indirect benefits, the only apparent direct benefit was when a car was sold. Haven't seen a mention of a direct transfer of money to his bank account

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

ive seen a preview i would suggest a box of tissues,it's a real tear jerker :rolleyes:

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

She claimed that the SNP couldn't do any internal investigation after the 4 resignations because of the police inquiry. The police inquiry didn't start until 4 months after the first of the resignations.
She also tried to deflect by saying that nobody made accusations of fraud. That is correct, but that wasn't their complaint. They weren't allowed to see the accounts. They might've spotted transactions that didn't seem quite right.
Even the police had difficulties identifying the list of fraudulent transactions. They had to contact the retailers and ask what was a certain transaction related to. Bit difficult to argue snail tongs and forks were legitimate SNP purchases.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

what we have to remember is she is the victim :rofl:

i think she should be registered blind for not noticing a motor home ...

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

Now now, the line is that she can’t “consciously” remember seeing it. Covering off if anyone has a photo of her standing next to it.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

I didn't do it officer, honest . . and don't tell me you have a witness because I looked and there was nobody else there at the time :erm:

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

Maybe even in it too?

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

Whoever advised her, perhaps even just her own belief in her own exceptionalism, to engage with this all week is foolish. She’s only just caught up with Tuesday and Sam Taylor pointing out where the £600k went.

For someone with such a public persona and a toxic impact on Scottish political discourse there’s a hundred times the number of people Anwar can throw at this putting in thousands of times the hours to find statements that are simply self contradictory or inherently improbable held against previous statements or evidence in the public domain.

Had she said nothing this could have just been a flash in the pan with her acolytes and the unionist press/Salmond supporters throwing faeces at each other on X. Her reputation somewhat tarnished, but probably still enough there to monetise going forward. Now that she’s continued to speak only the truly blinkered are howling at the moon against all of the evidence that says at a minimum she could, and should, have intervened sooner on the basis of what she knew about the accounts.

A level of competence completely at odds with her carefully crafted persona as a “serious” politician.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

Nicola Sturgeon does not identify as a lesbian, but she has stated that she does not view sexuality as strictly "binary" and has not ruled out the possibility of a future relationship with a woman.

Not sure about anyone else, but I don't think that a bad experience with a man is enough to make a woman turn to another woman (even though they may have had a bad experience with a man.)

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

She's just playing to the crowd mate

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

con merchant pulling all the levers

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

Surely as a lesbian though … :angel:

Anyhoo. These AI generated satire shorts by the Crewkerne Gazette are like a fever dream.



It’s worth looking for the others. :D

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

Joanna Cherry KC has said (on X) that any inquiry should also look into the increased legal spend by the SNP under the Murrels. Specifically whether this included the coaching witnesses in the Alex Salmond case, and private investigators.

https://x.com/joannaccherry/status/2...035927142?s=61

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

And the motorhome travelled just four miles! Did he embezzle it just as a place to hide away from his wife or was this a mental illness?
https://news.sky.com/story/peter-mur...ement-13549998

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

I do think setting aside the question marks over SNP governance, the probability of an organised cover up reaching to people at the highest level of the SNP, and a high comedy value, there is probably a sad little mentally ill man in Peter Murrell.

Unless someone can find him siphoning off money into overseas property he doesn’t appear to have much to show for his ill gotten gains. Some fancy pens, a couple of watches and brief use of a Jag. The thrill or addiction probably got to him. That’s why organisations should have controls, checks and balances.

Not that it excuses him, and most certainly doesn’t excuse those complicit in a cover up.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

He made other purchases connected to it's use, so was initially planning to use it.
Did covid get in the way? Then how would he explain away buying a motorhome and giving the SNP a £107K loan in June 2021.
A month later the police investigation started in July 2021. That would make it difficult to sell without attracting undue attention.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

No it was just a trial to see if he could get away with purchasing a luxury yacht! :)

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

How she is free beats me

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

i hope the police are working on that

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

Link
So how did he get legal aid?

It started shortly after they got married.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

On Amazon Prime Day. Apt.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

I think it’s offered very broadly when serious criminal charges are involved. There may be a mechanism for clawing some of it back later, possibly by putting a charge on assets.

---------- Post added at 11:37 ---------- Previous post was at 11:36 ----------

Shortly after he learned he’d have to get his thrills elsewhere …

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

A complaint has been made to Police Scotland alleging £1.5m unaccounted for by Yes Scotland Ltd.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/p...g-15m-37388389

Famously, the Scottish Greens co-leader Ross Greer MSP took to social media to vouch for the character of Peter Murrell for getting him a pay rise when he worked there.

It’s unclear under what authority this pay rise was made as Yes Scotland were a separate legal entity from the SNP.

Re: SNP: Two Murrells, one motorhome and a shed-load of missing cash
 

There should be full investigation , more than Murrell should be behind bars, this is a big cover up.