BREAKING: Nicola Sturgeon's estranged husband pleads guilty to embezzling £400,000 in Party funds

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:01]do this.

[00:00:02]>> Breaking news. Former SNP Chief Executive Peter Merl has been remanded in custody after pleading guilty at the high court in Edinburgh to embezzling over 400,000 from the party.

[00:00:16]>> Well, GV News national reporter Will Godley joins us in the studio. My god, this is a seismic moment, Will.

[00:00:21]>> Absolutely huge. And it's been reported that he was taken away in handcuffs after making that guilty plea embezzling hundreds of thousands of pounds. The exact amount £400,31965p from the SNP of course the party that he was chief executive of for more than 20 years. He embezzled funds from the party between August 2010 and October 2022.

[00:00:53]Used the money to buy all kinds of things, including a motor home and luxury goods, including the purchase of two cars. Let's just break down the costs of these things here. According to the indictment, in 2020, Marl used the money to buy a 124,550 motor home for his own personal use. He also used 57,500 of SNP's money to buy an £81,000 Jaguar car. That was in 2019. And he used £16,489 uh to of S&P's money. put that towards a £33,000 Volkswagen Golf bought in early 2016.

[00:01:39]Now, of course, he was the chief executive of this party for more than 20 years until he stood down in 2023 during the leadership race to succeed Sturgeon as first minister. But this, of course, was a longunning police investigation.

[00:01:57]It was called Operation Branch Form.

[00:02:01]They launched this investigation in 2021. Police Scotland after receiving seven complaints around donations to the SNP. And this investigation has costed police more than 2 million pounds.

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[00:03:54]>> I just say listening to this extraordinary. He was paid I'm just checking his salary. He was on a salary of $95,000 a year. Didn't his wife, who was first minister, not say, "Where's the money coming from to pay for a motor home over £100,000 for an £81,000 Jag?"

[00:04:10]Because if my partner suddenly bought an £81,000 jag and £120, I'd think, "Oh, really? Where's that come from? Have we won the lottery? Have we won the football pools? Extraordinary, isn't it?" Now, I'm not suggesting for a second. She She's a very busy woman. She she was first minister of Scotland, but it does seem extraordinary.

[00:04:27]>> It seems extraordinary. And also so you said a2 million pound cost to the police. So a2 million pound cost to taxpayers.

[00:04:38]>> And did you say that this was going on from 2010 to 2022? Will >> that's when the uh yes that's that's when he he has pleaded guilty to embezzling the funds starting in 2010 of course after this investigation this police investigation costing two more than2 million pounds. As you say, Andrew, Nicola Sturgeon perhaps wondering where the money came from. She was arrested in this investigation. They then released her with no charge and she said she signed off the accounts vindicated and there was never a scrap of evidence against her.

[00:05:13]>> How good was she at her job? Because she signed off the accounts.

[00:05:17]>> Who knows? I mean, they were previously those accounts were being scrutiny because basically he's he's there at the top with his wife as first minister.

[00:05:25]they're ruling the SNP, Scotland being pretty much controlled by the SNP and nobody I mean goodness all these donations and this as you say it was an investigation that went on for years but people that have given money to the party for fundraising and instead it's being spent on I remember the motor home had forgotten that it was 124,000 >> and it sat on his mother's drive >> and yeah it's >> and we Well, well, why would the S&P want a motor home? You don't use those for political campaigning, >> but also so blatant.

[00:06:02]>> But but the first minister never she became first minister in 2014. But so this has been going on for four years already and then she's first minister.

[00:06:09]She was certainly still first minister in 2022 right through the COVID crisis.

[00:06:13]She resigned very this all came that that the police investigation came to light. She said it was time to go.

[00:06:20]>> It was a February half term.

[00:06:22]15th of February 2023. Shock resignation Sturgeon.

[00:06:26]>> Um and Marl, her husband was arrested just a couple of months later, April 2023.

[00:06:34]He was then charged a year later in 2024 and of course now pleading guilty. The judge, Lord Lord Young, um told Marl today his actions amounted to a gross breach of trust. certainly do.

[00:06:49]>> After he pleaded guilty, he's been handcuffed, remanded into custody. He'll be sentenced on June the 23rd.

[00:06:57]>> But also, like, how could he ever have thought that he was going to get away with this? I mean, all right, he got away with it for a while, but like so much money. Not just like a few grand for,000 motor an £81,000 Jag. It's quite an expensive one, isn't it? And £125,000 motor. the modest acquisitions will >> and we've just had a statement from police Scotland on this as well. Uh and I can tell you that uh this is from the assistant chief constible Stuart Hoo had oversight of this longunning operation and he has said this was a lengthy and extremely complex case due to the scale of criminality over a 12-year period and the lengths Peter Merl went to try and cover his tracks. I commend the professionalism and absolute dedication of the operation branchform team who spent more than four years carrying out extensive inquiries across Europe to unpick Merl's offending. All of this work in close partnership with colleagues from the crown proc uh the crown office and the um procurator fiscal service was carried out under the most intensive public scrutiny and it was their commitment to gathering such detailed and compelling evidence that brought us to the high court today. They went on to say, "This is without doubt one of the most high-profile investigations in recent times, and it is testimony of the work of Police Scotland officers and staff that has led Peter Moral's admission of guilt early in this court process.