Former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell is due to be sentenced after he admitted embezzling more than £400,000 from the party.
The 61-year-old used the funds to make hundreds of extravagant purchases, including a £124,550 motorhome, cars, jewellery, luxury homewares and designer stationery.
He also falsified accounting records and created fake invoices in a bid to cover up his wrongdoing.
Murrell last month pleaded guilty to embezzling a total of £400,310.65 over a 12-year period between August 2010 and October 2022.
Peter Murrell will be sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh (Jane Barlow/PA)
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He is currently being held on remand and is expected to arrive at the High Court in Edinburgh in the back of a prison van to be sentenced by judge Lord Young.
Proceedings for recovering the embezzled funds are also expected to be discussed as part of the hearing.
The court previously heard Murrell’s role enabled him to make direct transfers of cash from the party’s main bank account, which held funds from “membership fees and donations paid by party members and other donors and legacies”.
Murrell also used multiple party “charge cards”, as well as making a number of false expense claims.
He tried to dodge suspicion by giving his purchases “misleading descriptions and/or accounting codes” in the party’s finance system, to which he had direct access.
The court heard a robotic lawnmower, which was purchased by Murrell for £3,070, was misdescribed as “legal fees” in the SNP’s accounting software.
A silver wine coaster worth £3,500 was described as “leadership expenses”.
Peter Murrell is expected to arrive in a prison van to be sentenced on Tuesday (Jane Barlow/PA)
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Murrell’s offending came to light after police began receiving complaints about potential mismanagement of the SNP’s finances in March 2021.
This led to an investigation, during which police uncovered evidence of Murrell’s embezzlement.
Murrell’s guilty plea has led to intense scrutiny for his former wife Nicola Sturgeon, who has denied knowing of his crimes – saying she was “deceived, misled and betrayed”.
The former SNP leader said she has been “completely exonerated” after a “two-year-long, very forensic police investigation” which saw police officers search the home she and Murrell had shared.
Ms Sturgeon was arrested and questioned as part of the police investigation into the SNP’s finances, which was known as Operation Branchform, but Police Scotland confirmed she would face no action.
The case has also led to widespread calls for inquiries into Murrell’s wrongdoing.
Peter Murrell’s guilty plea led to intense scrutiny for his former wife Nicola Sturgeon (Jane Barlow/PA)
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Former first minister Lord Jack McConnell said a joint inquiry by both Holyrood and Westminster committees should examine the matter.
Shadow Scottish secretary Andrew Bowie also called on Westminster’s Scottish Affairs Committee to initiate an inquiry.
The Scottish Government has resisted calls for a parliamentary inquiry and a Labour motion calling for a probe was rejected earlier this month by a majority of MSPs.
John Swinney had previously said an inquiry was unnecessary given the detailed nature of the police investigation.
The Scottish Affairs Committee in Westminster has considered launching its own probe into the matter.
As well as this, the committee has written to authorities at the Commons in a bid to determine how much short money – public cash given to opposition parties to help them fulfil their duties – was given to the SNP over the period of Murrell’s crimes.
The committee also asked about the “safeguards which exist to mitigate the risk of the misuse of short money”.
