Sold the lie that a second independence referendum was imminent, they raided their savings to support the cause.

Across Scotland, ordinary men and women spared what they could: crumpled tenners were retrieved from biscuit tins; giant whisky jars full of smash were upended; hundreds of little ‘Oh, go on, then’ bank transfers floated across the ether.

No sum was too small; every last penny would make a difference.

In the end, donations to the SNP’s 2017 call for help in funding a second referendum campaign amounted to around half a million pounds – money given not by the super-rich who so often buy political influence but by people who believed that the nationalists represented a different, more honest politics.

Party members and other donors were assured the money they had given would be ‘ring-fenced’, kept safe until the starting gun on the Indyref2 race was fired.

A couple of years later, the questions began. Activists, donors and even elected members wanted to know, precisely, where all that money had gone.

It emerged that the SNP’s finances were, at best, chaotic. Of that ‘ring-fenced’ money, little remained.

At the end of 2019, the SNP had just £96,000 in the bank.

We know now – despite repeated assurances at the time from his then wife, Nicola Sturgeon, that there was nothing to be concerned about – the money loyal SNP members had given to the cause they hold so close to their hearts was being burned through at an astonishing rate by her now estranged husband, Peter Murrell.

On Monday, Murrell – who served as SNP chief executive from 2001 to 2023 – pleaded guilty at the High Court in Edinburgh to embezzling £400,310.65 from the party between August 12, 2010, and October 19, 2022.

The hard-earned money of lifelong supporters of independence, gladly handed over in the hope the party might secure the right to hold a second referendum, was squandered by Murrell on bizarre shopping sprees. The list of items he bought is gaudy and camp as a 1970s pools winner’s fever dream.

While Ms Sturgeon told loyal SNP members that there was nothing to see, her husband was shelling out for designer luggage, handmade shoes and a Lalique cruet set.

The former First Minister has spent much of the past two days engaged in a frantic damage-limitation operation.

Shortly after her estranged husband was led from the High Court into a prison van, she issued a characteristically self-pitying statement on social media platform Instagram.

A fter stating that it was difficult to put her reaction into words, she made an effort. Ms Sturgeon wrote that she was ‘angry, hurt, sad and very distressed about the impact of his actions on family, friends and the SNP’.

She added: ‘To be deceived and let down by a husband I loved and trusted has caused me acute pain.

‘Why he acted as he did is, and always will be, beyond my comprehension.’

For good measure and the avoidance of doubt, she continued: ‘That I was fully cleared after a thorough investigation underlines that these are not my crimes. I was misled, just as others were.’

When you think about it, the big victim here is Nicola Sturgeon.

But the days when Ms Sturgeon could spout any old nonsense and be hailed a political giant are fading quickly in the rearview mirror.

So, sure, there was a smattering of sympathy from the usual suspects, the political bag-carriers and Z-list celebrities who fluttered around the former FM when she was a hot property and have not yet found someone else to fawn over, but the backlash from ordinary voters was ferocious.

Not unreasonably, people – Unionists and Nationalists alike – wanted to know how, precisely, she could have missed the acquisition of several hundred thousand pounds worth of luxury goods including, in the name of the Wee Man, a top-of-the-range motorhome?

But there were – and continue to be – other questions, too.

On what grounds, for example, did Ms Sturgeon angrily deny, five years ago, that a problem existed?

How did she, the leader of the SNP at the time and a signatory of its accounts, miss the disappearance of so much money?

What on earth kind of party was she running where crimes as shameless as Murrell’s could have gone on, undetected, for years?

But Nicola Sturgeon is yesterday’s woman. This scandal – including such revelations that, despite telling voters she was ready to assist Police Scotland in whatever way possible during its investigation into her party’s finance, she repeatedly answered ‘No comment’ during a seven-hour interview – has stripped her of whatever reputation she was still clinging to.

Perhaps she will write that best-seller – or maybe, desperate for the adoration of a new cohort of dupes, she’ll pitch up in the Scottish Greens – but Nicola Sturgeon’s reputation as a serious politician is kaput.

And so, too, might John Swinney’s be before long.

The current First Minister’s reaction to Murrell’s crime was bizarre.

During a press conference on Monday morning, Mr Swinney was asked – repeatedly – if he would apologise to party members.

Those particular teeth took some pulling but eventually he said: ‘I am sorry to people who are affected, I’m quite happy to say that.

‘But my point is the person responsible for this is Peter Murrell, it’s not my conduct that got to this – it’s Peter Murrell’s.

‘If it helps, I’ll say sorry to everyone involved.’

What a sneer in those three words ‘if it helps’.

Mr Swinney may think it acceptable for him to signal his insincerity. I’m not so sure that’s a wise, long-term strategy.

The First Minister and his colleagues are not the only victims of this crime.

Not only has the investigation into Murrell’s crimes – the crimes that took place while Mr Swinney was one of the most senior members of the SNP – cost taxpayers almost £3million, the damage this scandal has caused to faith in the integrity of our democracy is incalculable.

Those who do not share Mr Swinney’s view that Scotland should become independent are well accustomed to his contempt.

Loyal nationalists, on the other hand, may have been surprised that, when asked whether those whose money had been stolen would be reimbursed, the First Minister refused to make any such commitment.

‘Party members have made donations to the SNP, we don’t have that money, it has been stolen from us,’ he said.

If the customers or supporters of any other major organisation had fallen victim to crimes like those committed by Murrell, then Mr Swinney would be standing on the floor of the Holyrood debating chamber, demanding the boss put things right.

The First Minister owes Scotland an apology on behalf of the rotten-to-its-core SNP.

More than that, John Swinney owes every person who donated to his party a promise they’ll be paid back what has been stolen, even if that means every last member of the government taking on paper rounds.