Details of Nicola Sturgeon’s estranged husband Peter Murrell’s spending habits were laid bare today after he admitted embezzling £400,000 from the SNP.
The 61-year-old, who pleaded guilty at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday, reportedly used the cash to buy trendy Le Creuset cookware, a Dyson vacuum cleaner, video games, and vintage whisky.
Also on Murrell’s shopping list were £2,600 Lalique salt and pepper grinders and a £4,225 Montblanc fountain pen.
But, as far as outrageous shopping sprees are concerned, Murrell isn’t the only offender.
In 2003, footage of Michael Jackson splurging £4.5 million ($6 million) on antiques at a Las Vegas boutique sparked disbelief when it was aired during ITV’s 2003 programme Living with Michael Jackson.
Meanwhile, former First Lady of the Phillippines, Imelda Marcos had such a taste for luxury that she spent over £2.2 million ($3 million) during a one-day shopping trip to New York.
As the full list of Murrell’s indiscriminate blowout emerges, we look back at some of the most unbelievable shopping excursions in history.
Michael Jackson
Late pop star Michael Jackson and former BBC journalist Martin Bashir in a still from the 2003 documentary Living with Michael Jackson
During disgraced former BBC journalist Martin Bashir’s 2003 interview with Michael Jackson, one segment from the ITV programme highlighted his reckless spending habits.
At one point during the controversial 90-minute programme, Bashir’s crew followed the late pop star around his ‘favourite shopping mall’, The Grand Canal Shoppes inside the Venetian Resort on the Las Vegas Strip.
The singer, who died in 2009 after suffering a cardiac arrest, took Bashir to the Regis Galerie, as he noted the shop had the ‘luckiest manager in the world’ courtesy of Jackson’s ‘extraordinary’ spending habits.
During that particular visit to the Regis Galerie, which sells high-end art, jewellery, and home decor, the Thriller hitmaker splashed £4.5million (roughly $6million) in a matter of minutes.
During his time at the high-end boutique, Jackson ordered a marble statue depicting the ‘Bathing of Apollo’, two vases worth over half a million dollars, a carved chess set worth £66,000 ($89,000), oil paintings and bronze sculptures for his Neverland home.
‘I accompanied Jackson on one extraordinary shopping trip to Las Vegas,’ Bashir later recalled in an interview with a Sunday paper.
‘I say shopping trip, it was more like a multinational corporation buying furniture for all its worldwide premises.
‘Jackson spent $6million on everything from 10ft-tall glass urns to oversized marble chess sets. He’s already got three of these.’
Imelda Marcos
Former first lady of the Phillippines, Imelda Marcos famously spent $3million during a one-day shopping trip to New York in 1993
Philippine dictator Fernando Marcos’s wife, Imelda Marcos was dubbed the ‘First Lady of Extravagance’ after the couple reportedly embezzled up to $10 billion.
Her reputation for excess was underscored by Imelda’s infamous $7 million shopping spree over 90 days across New York, Berlin, and Copenhagen in 1983.
Her former secretary meticulously recorded details of her spree in a spiral-bound steno notebook, The Cut reported, as Imelda splashed $3 million in New York in a single day.
The former first lady of the Phillippines reportedly treated herself to fine jewellery from luxury brands like Van Cleef & Arpels, Fred Leighton Ltd, Cartier, Harry Winston, and Bulgari.
Along with her $2 million jewellery haul, Imelda also bought books worth $23,000, limo rides costing $35,000, and luxe Italian linen worth over $10,000.
A former employee at Scribner’s bookstore on Fifth Avenue recalled how Imelda handpicked titles from every section in an interview with the LA Times, adding: ‘She couldn’t physically walk out with all of them, even with all the guards [she was accompanied by].
‘It was wild. Those kinds of business days don’t come along very often.’
Elton John
With an estimated net worth of around £470 million, Sir Elton John made headlines in 2000 when details of his £40 million spree were first revealed.
Sir Elton, then 53, revealed how he spent what would be the equivalent of £76 million today between January 1996 and September 1997 after he signed a lucrative record deal with Polygram.
The singer’s expenses came under scrutiny during his multi-million-pound contract battle in November 2000.
The singer, who was suing his former management company and the accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, told the High Court in London: ‘I have no one to leave the money to. I’m a single man. I like spending my money.’
The Rocket Man hitmaker’s wild 90s spree included spending £293,000 on flowers alone and £9.6 million on property that would be worth £18.6 million today.
Evalyn Walsh McLean
The daughter of Irish mining magnate Thomas Walsh, Evalyn Walsh McLean was not known for her modest tastes.
The Colorado-born heiress and wife of Edward McLean, who owned the Washington Post, had a love of all things luxury.
After they eloped in 1908, Evalyn spent over $200,000 during their honeymoon in Europe, including buying the 94-carat Star of the East Diamond.
The American socialite, who also bought the 45-carat Hope Diamond from Pierre Cartier in 1911, once went on a shopping spree in a Rolls-Royce as she had shopkeepers show her jewels in the back of her chauffeured car.
Admitting her obsession with expensive gems and jewellery, Evalyn once said: ‘They make me feel comfortable, and even happy.
‘When I neglect to wear jewels, astute members of my family call in doctors because it is a sign I’m becoming ill.’
In her memoir, Father Struck It Rich, Evalyn also described buying a St Bernard puppy in the same manner as she wrote: ‘There seemed to be not a single poodle for sale.’
Peter Murrell
Nicola Sturgeon’s estranged husband Peter Murrell admitted embezzling more than £400,000 from the SNP
The extraordinary shopping list of Peter Murrell, the estranged husband of Nicola Sturgeon, was revealed today after he admitted embezzling more than £400,000 from the SNP.
He used the cash to buy a £125,000 campervan and other luxury goods including Lalique salt and pepper grinders worth £2,600 and Fortnum and Mason advent calendars at £200 a pop.
Murrell was shown to have developed a liking for pricey fountain pens, whisky and vacuums as he compulsively bought items over the years.
He also splashed cash on DVD box sets, games and games consoles during his spending sprees.
It may have started small with the purchase of two Ali Baba laundry baskets, worth £70.89, in September 2010, among the first.
But the buys became increasingly extravagant, with more than £12,000 splashed on Apple brands nine years later.
Murrell purchased games and consoles to the tune of £419.18 in November 2011. In January 2013, Murrell spent £75 on ‘2 x Borgen: The Complete Seasons One and Two DVD’.
He also bought a Volkswagen Golf in 2016 using £16,489 from the party coffers.
In March 2017, he bought a Montblanc white gold £4,225 fountain pen, and on May 28 that year, he splashed out £4,555.25 on a white luxury Bremont watch. Just days later, on June 10, he bought the same watch in black, costing £4,795.
Just ahead of Christmas 2018, he spent almost £500 on a Dyson vacuum and the following month, he paid £205.39 for 15-year-old Laphroaig and £149.99 for the same vintage Macallan whisky.
In January 2020, he forked out £2,618.16 on two Feuilles Pepper and Salt Grinders from Lalique UK. In the same year, he bought a Niesmann and Bischoff motorhome using £124,550 of SNP funds and spent another £54,000 of the party’s cash to buy a Jaguar I-Pace.
Other items include The Origins of Totalitarianism for £159.99 from The Folio Society Ltd, purchased in March 2022.
In March 2024, he spent £49.80 on a Le Creuset wine pourer, a Le Creuset champagne and sparkling wine bottle opener and a Le Creuset three-in-one corkscrew.
That November, he bought a £1,299 Miele coffee machine, and just before Christmas that year, he paid £42.99 on Grand Theft Auto V for the PS4.
