Police Scotland failed to make ANY new inquiries into potential SNP fraud

Police Scotland has declined to launch any new inquiries into potential fraud surrounding the Scottish National Party's finances, leaving serious questions unanswered regarding hundreds of thousands of pounds raised from independence supporters. The decision has sparked renewed criticism from opposition politicians and triggered fresh legal challenges from activists who argue that donations earmarked for a second independence referendum were improperly diverted into general party funds.

The controversy centres on approximately £660,000 to £667,000 collected across two online crowdfunding platforms launched after previous electoral announcements. The SNP insisted at the time that the money was ring-fenced for a future referendum campaign. However, subsequent party accounts revealed a much smaller bank balance, prompting internal resignations and outside complaints. According to reporting detailed by BBC coverage, activists including Sean Clerkin reported the party to police, accusing leadership of raising money for one purpose while spending it on another.

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First Minister John Swinney later confirmed that the referendum money had been used for the party's ongoing activities, insisting it was spent on independence objectives. Writing for Scottish Daily Express, political reporters highlighted how freedom of information requests revealed Police Scotland held no records of investigative logs or internal briefings reviewing Swinney's public admissions against prior detective work.

Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Stephen Kerr criticized the institutional response, telling the Scottish Daily Express that a rotten culture had shut down queries into party finances. Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay described the First Minister's remarks as damning, asserting they destroyed residual trust in the party. Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie added that supporters believed their hard-earned money would fund a future referendum campaign rather than general party expenditures.

Frustration over the stalled investigative scope has prompted independent legal action. Blogger Stuart Campbell, operating through Yahoo News UK reporting on the Wings Over Scotland initiative, secured more than £30,000 to seek a judicial review of decisions made by Police Scotland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. Campbell obtained a legal opinion from Roddy Dunlop KC, the Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, which suggested that misappropriating the funds constituted serious crimes including fraud, theft by appropriation, and embezzlement, making a civil claim for fraudulent breach of trust close to irresistible.

The wider financial probe, known as Operation Branchform, ultimately led to severe criminal convictions elsewhere within the party hierarchy. As reported by BreakingNews.ie, former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell was sentenced to a backdated term of five years and three months at the High Court in Edinburgh after pleading guilty to embezzling over £400,000 from the party over a 12-year period. Judge Young condemned Murrell for executing a calculated crime of dishonesty involving hundreds of extravagant purchases, including luxury vehicles, a motorhome, designer stationery, and jewellery, which were masked using misleading accounting codes.

The fallout from Operation Branchform also cast a long shadow over former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, whose sudden resignation was scrutinized by commentators examining concurrent financial pressures. Writing for Think Scotland, analysts noted that financial probes created uncomfortable reading for the leadership, spanning both party accounts and separate grant allocations to publishers associated with nationalist figures.

Police Scotland maintained that no further criminal inquiries are presently required without significant new evidence. A force spokesperson emphasized that relevant evidence and potential criminality regarding the independence fund were already thoroughly examined during the broader Operation Branchform investigation. Meanwhile, the Crown Office stated that prosecution decisions were taken independently by prosecutors based strictly on the evidence and in accordance with the law, declining to comment on threatened legal proceedings.

As legal teams prepare for upcoming court challenges and judicial review proceedings, public scrutiny over political transparency in Scotland remains intense. Further updates on the progress of the Wings Over Scotland legal challenge and any formal responses from the Crown Office are expected as the civil case moves toward the courts.