Police find ‘no criminality’ over claims £1.5m missing from Yes Scotland finances

Police Scotland has found no criminality in a complaint over Yes Scotland’s finances, following claims that more than £1.5m in income was unaccounted for.

The complaint was made by independence campaigner David Henry, whose previous concerns about the SNP’s finances led to a separate investigation known as Operation Branchform.

Yes Scotland Ltd was set up by Alex Salmond to campaign for independence ahead of the 2014 referendum and has been inactive since that year.

Mr Henry told the Sunday Mail that the company’s accounts showed a zero balance from 2016 onwards, with the £1.5m recorded in earlier accounts appearing to have “just gone”.

Former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell was jailed for more than five years as part of the Branchform probe, after he admitted embezzling more than £400,000 from the party.

Yes Scotland previously said that all its funds had been accounted for and no wrongdoing had taken place.

Lawyer Aamer Anwar, speaking on behalf of former Yes Scotland chief executive Blair Jenkins, previously said Murrell “never at any time” had access to money belonging to the pro-independence campaign.

Meanwhile, the SNP stressed that Yes Scotland Ltd is an “entirely separate organisation”.

On Friday, a Police Scotland spokesperson confirmed that, following an assessment, no further investigation was required.

A statement read: “We received information which was assessed and nothing was identified which would warrant further investigation.”

Yes Scotland and the SNP have been contacted for comment.