Case one
What happened
A short, factual account of the case behind the list. Every claim on this page is drawn from the court's own sentencing statement and from published reporting, both linked at the bottom.
The offence
Peter Murrell was chief executive of the Scottish National Party. Over a period of twelve years in that role he embezzled around £400,000 from the party. He was arrested in 2023 as part of Operation Branchform, the Police Scotland investigation into SNP finances, and was charged with embezzlement in April 2024.
He tendered a plea of guilty in early March 2026, shortly after being indicted, and the plea was finalised at a preliminary hearing in June. That plea meant no trial was needed.
The sentence
On 23 June 2026, at the High Court in Edinburgh, Lord Young sentenced Murrell to five years and three months in prison. The sentence was backdated to 25 May 2026, the date he was first remanded in custody.
Lord Young said the sentence would have been seven years had it followed a trial. The reduction reflected the value of the guilty plea in avoiding what the court described as a lengthy and complex trial that would have run for many weeks.
Of the things the money was spent on, the judge observed that many of the high value items acquired "were not even used".
The list
The spending was itemised, and that itemised record was published in the press. It runs to 627 separate purchases covering 1,048 individual items, totalling £400,279.34. It begins in August 2010 with a laundry basket and ends in October 2022 with a set of food containers.
What makes it hold the attention is not the motorhome, though there is a motorhome. It is the ordinariness of most of it. Bird feeders. Oven gloves. Hand cream. The same brand of casserole dish, over and over, for years.
Who this case concerned
The case was against Peter Murrell alone. No one else was convicted in connection with it, and nothing on this site should be read as suggesting otherwise.
Where this came from
The account above follows the official sentencing statement published by the Judiciary of Scotland, which is the primary source and worth reading in full. The itemised spending list was compiled and published by The Scottish Sun. Full detail of how the data was handled is on the sources and method page.