Police investigating fraud allegations at the SNP are probing high value transactions including vehicle purchases made by the party.
Senior figures have been quizzed by detectives about items of spending and also gifts dating back to 2018 as part of the investigation codenamed Operation Branchform.
Crown prosecutors are now directing the probe which was triggered by at least 19 criminal complaints that £600,000 of donations to a “ring-fenced” referendum fund had been misappropriated.
We revealed how former treasurer Douglas Chapman was spoken to as a witness by officers in the days before Nicola Sturgeon announced her shock resignation.
She and her husband - former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell - say they have yet to be interviewed.
A source said: “Police are particularly interested in vehicle purchases and other items of capital expenditure.
“Some of the people spoken to have been surprised to find questioning focussed on this rather than donations.”
The last accounts filed for the party show a £80,632 “tangible asset” of “motor vehicles”.
An SNP spokesman last night declined to comment on vehicles owned by the party.
He said: “We will cooperate fully with the police investigation and will make no further comment.”
Murrell resigned earlier this month after taking responsibility for lies told to the Sunday Mail over membership figures, plunging his party into crisis amid a leadership battle.
The SNP’s communications chief also resigned after our exclusive revealing 30,000 members had left were flatly denied - despite being 100 per cent true.
The Police Scotland fraud probe centres on £600,000 of funds raised in 2017 and 2019 which were to be “ring-fenced” for a referendum campaign.
However the SNP’s accounts showed less than £100,000 in the bank at the end of 2019, despite the fact a referendum had not been held.
The row sparked the resignation of several members of the party’s ruling national executive committee in 2021.
Edinburgh South MP Joanna Cherry said she was standing down from the NEC over “transparency and scrutiny concerns”. Three other members resigned from the party’s finance and audit committee including MP for Dunfermline and West Fife Chapman.
He was appointed in 2020 and promised to publish a more “member-friendly” set of accounts.
But he stood down after Murrell allegedly refused to fully open the books, saying he “did not received the support of financial information”.
A second senior SNP source said: “Douglas Chapman is an honourable and professional man who has done absolutely nothing wrong.
“He was elected to the post of treasurer to bring much needed transparency and accountability to the SNP’s internal finances.
“However he was obstructed at every turn in his efforts to do this by the chief executive and as a result he resigned from the post.”
It has also emerged details of Peter Murrell’s salary are missing from eight years of SNP accounts.
He took up the position of chief executive in 1999, with the first accounts available from the electoral commission in 2008 when he earned £62,993.
His earnings then rose to £109,492 in 2011 before falling to £77,024 the following year despite the party growing exponentially over that period with vastly increased income.
There are then no salary details between 2013 and 2020, before his salary is again listed in 2021 and 2022 as £79,750.
It’s since emerged Murrell gave a loan of £107,620 to the party to help it out with a “cash flow” issue after the last election in June 2021.
Sturgeon has said she “can’t recall” when she learned of the loan but said it came from Murrell’s own “resources”.
The loan was made just months after the Sunday Mail first revealed the fraud investigation in April 2021.
Electoral Commission records show Murrell handed the SNP the loan on June 20, 2021, with no security against it and no fixed interest rate. The watchdog was not notified until August 11, 2022.
It was also told an instalment of £26,905 was repaid on August 18, 2021, followed by a further instalment of £20,715 on October 25, 2021.
Failing to disclose a political donation or loan can result in sanctions from the Electoral Commission and ultimately criminal prosecution.
Scottish Labour Deputy Leader Jackie Baillie said: “Questions about the SNP’s murky finances just keep piling up.
“The usual SNP secrecy and cover-up won’t cut it - they need to open the books and come clean about what exactly has gone on here.”
Scottish Conservative Chairman Craig Hoy added: “This whole affair stinks of SNP secrecy.
“These latest claims into the long-standing police investigation only add to how murky this situation has got for those at the very top of Scotland’s ruling party.
“Peter Murrell may have resigned in disgrace as the SNP’s Chief Executive but these questions over this significant sum of money are simply not going to disappear.
“Whoever emerges from the SNP’s bitter leadership contest cannot ignore the serious questions looming over them.
“The onus is on Nicola Sturgeon’s replacement to urgently be transparent over exactly what has happened to the missing £600,000.”
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “A report which outlines enquiries already undertaken and seeks further instruction has been submitted to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.
“We are working closely with COPFS as the investigation continues.”
The Lord Advocate, Dorothy Bain - a member of the government - has stepped aside and Crown agent John Logue is understood to be overseeing the case.
Dozens of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s closest friends and supporters turned out to wish her a fond farewell at a luxury Edinburgh venue last week.
Her husband Peter Murrell was among around 100 guests who gathered at the city’s Ghillie Dhu restaurant after Sturgeon’s final session of First Minister’s Questions.
Murrell, who quit as the party’s chief executive eight days ago, was notably missing from the Holyrood chamber as his wife made her final parliamentary address, but happily rubbed shoulders with the SNP elite on Thursday night.
Jason Leitch, the government’s National Clinical Director, members of Sturgeon’s constituency office staff and selected MSPs were among the other attendees who watched as deputy First Minister John Swinney addressed the room.
Swinney paid tribute to Sturgeon’s career and success before Sturgeon made a brief speech.
One attendee told the Sunday Mail: “It was a great night with a number of close friends and advisers who wanted to say thanks to Nicola and also to John Swinney.
“It’s the end of an era and it was right to wish them well.
“Nicola thanked her family, mainly, and those who had helped her along the way but she didn’t spend a long time making her speech.”
The party venue is described as an “enchanting listed building tucked in at the West End of Edinburgh City Centre” offering traditional Scottish food and live music.
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