Nicola Sturgeon could lose her marital home to repay the £400,000 her estranged husband Peter Murrell embezzled from the SNP, legal experts have said. The former Scottish first minister and Murrell bought a suburban home in Uddingston, near Glasgow, for £228,000 in 2005. Similar properties in the area have recently sold for about £330,000.
According to Yvonne Evans, a senior law lecturer at Dundee University, selling the property is the 'most obvious way' to recover assets under proceeds of crime legislation. While Sturgeon would be entitled to her share, Murrell's stake would be used to reimburse the party he ran for over two decades. A court order has already prevented the property from being sold.
Murrell admitted embezzling £400,310.65 from the SNP over 12 years during a court hearing on Monday. Prosecutors have applied for a confiscation order under the Proceeds of Crime Act. He is likely to receive a lengthy jail term when sentenced next month.
The remaining £60,000 of a £107,620 loan Murrell provided to the SNP in June 2021 is also expected to be cancelled and included in the total repayment. The loan was made six months after he purchased a luxury motorhome worth £124,550 using party funds, kept at his mother's property.
Court records revealed Murrell used party cash for personal expenses including two children's scooters for Christmas, jewellery, two cars, and luxury items around Sturgeon's birthdays, such as Montblanc pens and a Fortnum & Mason hamper.
