Natalie McGarry: Former SNP MP guilty of embezzlement of nearly £25,000 after Glasgow trial | Political news
A former SNP MP has been found guilty of embezzling nearly £25,000 from two Scottish independence organisations.
Natalie McGarry, 41, received money as treasurer for Women for Independence (WFI) and the Glasgow Area SNP Association.
Her bank account shows money coming in and, almost immediately, she goes out and gets spent on rent, shopping and vacationing in Spain.
Some of the cash embezzled included food bank donations.
McGarry, who represented Glasgow East from 2015 to 2017, embezzled £21,000 while she was treasurer for the WFI from 2013 to 2015.
She received £4,661 as treasurer, secretary and convenor of the SNP’s Glasgow Regional Association (GRA) and was convicted of two counts of embezzlement at the Glasgow Sheriff’s Court.
McGarry became WFI treasurer in 2012 when PayPal money entered her personal bank account.
The jury was shown a bank statement in which McGarry’s personal account had a balance of £10.74 – which was subsequently subjected to a £1,700 PayPal transfer.
A £1,000 rent payment was then transferred to the account the next day.
WFI has also paid the bill for part of a five-year £5,000 loan as well as purchases in Tesco, Asda and from Just Eat.
McGarry also went on holiday with her partner to Spain with another couple.
She was convicted after a trial at the Glasgow Sheriff’s Court
‘She makes a lot of money’
During the trial, the director of her constituency office, Rachel Mackie, recalled: “She made a lot of money, a good salary, and her partner was a councilor, she would be in office. room to complain about slipping all the time.”
Scotland’s Health Minister Humza Yousaf gives evidence he lent McGarry £600 after overhearing conversations she would be evicted.
Mr Yousaf said: ‘I offered her a £600 loan from the bank across the street.
“I made the transaction and the money was returned approximately within the time period.”
The court heard that McGarry failed to pay the charity Positive Prisons Positive Futures £360 from a WFI bucket collection.
A similar collection for a food bank in Perth was not delivered.
McGarry ‘overwhelmed’ by ‘trick work’
McGarry’s home was raided by police in May 2016, where a warrant was read through a door, while she was “hiding” in her bathroom.
She denied any wrongdoing during her six days of evidence, saying she was “overwhelmed” doing “fraud work” for WFI.
She sobbed in the witness box as she said: “It was the most horrible experience I could imagine.
“My whole life is ripped apart when I’ve done nothing wrong.”
McGarry, who had no reaction when the verdict was read out, accompanied her family to the court.
Sentencing was adjourned pending background reports until next month and McGarry was released on bail.
She previously had a similar embezzlement conviction that was overturned by appeals judges in 2019 after they ruled she had suffered negligence of justice.
