Peter Murrell, former SNP chief and estranged husband of Nicola Sturgeon, jailed for embezzling funds

The judge told Murrell he had committed a 'calculated crime of dishonesty', with a 'large number of fraudulent acts over a 12-year period while you were chief executive officer of the SNP'

Former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell leaving in a prison van from the High Court in Edinburgh, where he was jailed for five years and three months. Picture: Jane Barlow/PA

Peter Murrell, the former chief executive of the SNP who embezzled more than £400,000 (€463,000) from the party, has been jailed for more than five years.

Murrell, the estranged husband of former SNP leader and Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon, saw his sentence backdated five years and three months at the High Court in Edinburgh.