Peter Murrell was led away from court in handcuffs after he was sentenced to more than five years in prison for embezzling more than £400,000 from the Scottish National Party. The former chief executive of the SNP was handed a backdated sentence of five years and three months at the High Court in Edinburgh on Tuesday (23 June). In May, Murrell pleaded guilty to embezzling £400,310.65 between August 2010 and October 2022. Lord Young told Murrell he had committed a “calculated crime of dishonesty”, with a “large number of fraudulent acts over a 12-month period while you were chief executive officer of the SNP”.