£400,310.65. That was the sum the court heard Peter Murrell diverted from the Scottish National Party. He pleaded guilty at the High Court in Edinburgh on 25 May and was handcuffed in the dock before being remanded in custody. The 61-year-old former SNP chief executive will be sentenced on 23 June, after the court hears a full narrative of the facts on 2 June. The plea follows a multi-year police inquiry known as Operation Branchform, which began in July 2021.

If you have followed the long running probe into the SNP's finances, Monday's hearing was a decisive moment. Murrell, who ran the party as chief executive for more than 20 years, admitted an amended charge that reduces the original allegation from £459,046.49 to £400,310.65. The difference is roughly £59,000. Judge Lord Young told Murrell in court, "Your actions involve a gross breach of trust." He was handcuffed in the dock and remanded in custody.

What Murrell admitted in court

The prosecution says the offending was systematic and sustained. Court material states the unlawful transfers took place between August 2010 and October 2022. Prosecutors allege Murrell diverted party funds over an extended period to finance an expensive personal lifestyle. Reporting and the indictment list purchases said to include luxury goods, jewellery, cosmetics, two cars and a motorhome.

Media reporting has highlighted one particular allegation that in 2020 party funds were used to buy a motorhome priced at £124,550. The amended indictment that Murrell admitted to doesn't alter the prosecution's account of a long running pattern of conduct, senior Crown lawyers and police have told the court. A fuller narrative of the facts will be set out when the case next calls on 2 June.

Murrell, 61, resigned as SNP chief executive in March 2023 amid a row over the party's membership numbers. He was first arrested by Police Scotland in April 2023 and formally charged in April 2024. The guilty plea on 25 May brings to a head more than three years of criminal inquiry and a year of court procedure since the charge was laid.

Operation Branchform and the wider inquiry

Police Scotland began Operation Branchform in July 2021. The inquiry produced a series of high profile arrests and, over time, became a complex cross border investigation.

Assistant Chief Constable Stuart Houston, who had oversight of Operation Branchform, described the work as "a lengthy and extremely complex case due to the scale of criminality over a 12 year period and the lengths Peter Murrell went to try and cover his tracks." He said the inquiry involved more than four years of enquiries across Europe and was conducted closely with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

Mastheads

The policing bill alone exceeded £2 million, Police Scotland has said. That figure captures mounting costs for detective time, forensics and international work that stretched beyond the UK. Witness statements, prosecutors say, were vital to building the case and to clarifying the trail of funds that underpinned the indictment.

Other prominent figures arrested during the inquiry were later informed they were no longer under investigation. Former party treasurer Colin Beattie and former first minister Nicola Sturgeon were both arrested at various stages of Operation Branchform but, Police Scotland formally told both in March 2025 that they were no longer being investigated. Those developments narrowed the focus of the probe even as it continued to produce fresh lines of inquiry.

For the Crown, the next procedural steps are clear. The court will hear the full factual narrative on 2 June and sentencing is scheduled for 23 June 2026. The amended indictment narrows the financial total Murrell admitted in court but prosecutors maintain the characterisation of the offending as deliberate and repeated over a long period.

The practical effect of Monday's plea is immediate. A guilty plea at the High Court removes the need for a trial on the embezzlement allegation.

It also sets the timetable for sentencing and for any ancillary civil or party internal actions to follow. For readers tracking the story, major news outlets will carry live coverage on the scheduled court dates and the High Court listings will show when hearings are open to the public.

Honestly, beyond the courtroom, the case leaves the SNP with reputational as well as financial questions. Murrell had been a senior party official for two decades. Allegations that party funds were diverted to pay for high value items strike at the centre of a party whose finances and membership figures have been matters of public debate in recent years.

Police and prosecuting authorities have framed this as a finely worked investigation. Assistant Chief Constable Stuart Houston and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service worked alongside investigators to assemble the case, and prosecutors say witness statements were crucial to that effort. The inquiry is an example of prolonged police work that involved both domestic and European enquiries, and which culminated in the formal charge in April 2024 and the guilty plea in May 2026.

For those keeping a running tally: the original figure named in the indictment was £459,046.49; Murrell admitted to £400,310.65. The police say the overall cost of policing Operation Branchform was more than £2 million. Those numbers will form part of the sentencing exercise on 23 June, when the judge will have the full account of the offending before passing sentence.

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The court will hear a full narrative of the facts on 2 June 2026, and Murrell is due to be sentenced on 23 June 2026. Originally reported by news.sky.com.

This article was created with AI assistance.