A local resident has publicly challenged Nicola Sturgeon’s insistence that she had no knowledge of a £125,000 campervan bought by her embezzler husband with SNP funds — saying he saw the former Scottish first minister shopping near her mother-in-law’s Dunfermline home in the same period the vehicle was parked on the property’s driveway.
Peter Murrell, the former SNP chief executive and Ms Sturgeon’s estranged husband, pleaded guilty on Monday to embezzling £400,310.65 from the party between August 2010 and October 2022. Court papers revealed an extraordinary list of items purchased with the stolen funds, including the campervan, Lalique salt and pepper grinders worth £2,600 and £200 Fortnum and Mason advent calendars.
Ms Sturgeon this week said she was “not aware” of the campervan’s existence until it appeared in a police investigation in early 2023. But the vehicle is said to have been parked at Margaret Murrell’s home in Dunfermline, Fife — Ms Sturgeon’s mother-in-law — for approximately two years before police seized it in April 2023.
Ryan-Thomas Quinn, 18, told The Telegraph he saw Ms Sturgeon at an Asda supermarket six minutes by car from the property in autumn 2022. “I just find it unbelievable that clearly she was at her mother-in-law’s house, and she didn’t think to ask her the question, ‘Where did the campervan on the driveway come from?'” he said. Quinn, a journalism student and Labour activist, added that Ms Sturgeon had told another shopper she had family in Dunfermline. He said he regularly walked past Margaret Murrell’s home in 2022 and that the motorhome was “always on the driveway.” He also said he had “nothing to gain” politically from fabricating the account, given that the SNP had just won another five years in power at Holyrood.
He had earlier posted on X: “It was parked on your ex-mother-in-law’s driveway, in 2022, when I seen you in Asda Halbeath (Dunfermline) buying dinner to take over to her house. Didn’t you think to ask where it came from?”
Ms Sturgeon’s lawyers are reported not to have contested that the Dunfermline visit took place. However, sources told The Telegraph it would not necessarily have been obvious which property the campervan belonged to, suggesting it was parked between Margaret Murrell’s bungalow and a neighbouring property and may not have been visible when approaching from the front.
In a statement issued through her lawyer, Ms Sturgeon maintained she had no knowledge or suspicion that personal items had been purchased with party funds. “I was cleared of any wrongdoing after a lengthy and thorough investigation,” she said. She added that she and Murrell had held separate bank accounts and that she had no access to his financial records. “In respect of any items I was aware of Peter having purchased, I had no reason to doubt that he had used his own money. We were both earning high salaries.”
The case has also drawn attention to a £425 necklace among the items Murrell admitted buying with stolen funds. He is understood to have purchased the 9ct gold pendant, inspired by the Northern Lights, from Shetland Jewellery in July 2019 — reportedly telling the shop owner “I’m the man with the money.” Ms Sturgeon was seen wearing the necklace on multiple occasions that summer and in the chamber of the Scottish Parliament.
Ms Sturgeon announced in January 2025 that she and Murrell had decided to end their marriage.
