'I'm the man with the money,' Murrell told Shetland jeweller

When Nicola Sturgeon visited a jeweller's shop in Shetland in 2019, her husband told its owner he was "the man with the money". At the time Peter Murrell was the chief executive of the SNP, while his wife was party leader and Scotland's first minister. During the trip to Shetland Jewellery as part of a by-election campaign, he bought her a 9ct gold pendant depicting the Northern Lights. Seven years later that necklace is one of hundreds of items Murrell has admitted purchasing using cash he embezzled from the SNP. At the High Court in Edinburgh the 61-year-old admitted embezzling more than £400,000 from the party between August 2010 and October 2022. He pleaded guilty to illicitly purchasing items including luxury goods, jewellery, cosmetics, two cars and a motorhome. Sturgeon said she had been "deceived and let down by a husband she loved and trusted". She added that she had "no reason to doubt" that he was spending his own money as they earned high salaries, rarely socialised or went on holidays. Kenneth Rae, the owner of Shetland Jewellery, told BBC Scotland News that he was in the store during Murrell's visit on 28 July 2019. "They came in and then Peter Murrell said, while his