'We have no desire to profit from breach of trust.' Birdfeeder company returns funds to SNP

                                                  

The feeders were bought from a company based in Canterbury, pictured (photo: Christine Matthews via Wikimedia Commons)

A COMPANY that designs and assembles birdfeeders has returned £155 to the Scottish National Party after learning  that three of its products had been purchased with misappropriated SNP money by its former chief executive, Peter Murrell.

The magnanimous gesture was today revealed by Graham Evans who is senior partner with Jacobi Jayne & Co which supplies feeders to customers all over the UK and beyond from its base in Canterbury, Kent.

In a letter published in today’s edition of The Daily Telegraph, Mr Evans writes: "While we are in the business of supporting garden wildlife, we have no desire to profit from a breach of trust.

"We are therefore donating  the full £155 received for these items back to the SNP."

He continues: "We are an entirely apolitical organisation, but we believe that stolen money has no place in our accounts.

Mr Evans concludes with a challenge to other firms that also received unauthorised payment through the actions of the former SNP chief.

"It is our hope that other suppliers named in the investigation will follow suit to ensure that such funds are returned to their rightful owners," he urges.

At a total cost of £155, the three feeders sold to Mr Murrell are likely to have been top-of-the-range products which are resistant to all but the most cunning of squirrels.

It is not known if Mr Murrell bought the feeders for others members of his family or for him and Nicola Sturgeon, now his estranged wife, to watch the finches, tits and other birds that visited their garden.

Nor is it known if the feeders will be returned to Jacobi Jayne & Co following its refund of the £155.