A former MSP told a colleague’s trial she felt her role in signing blank cheques had been “engineered” by embezzlement-accused Natalie McGarry.
Carolyn Leckie said she gave six blank cheques to McGarry to pay wages and bills accrued by political group Women for Independence (WFI).
Former MP McGarry, 40, denies embezzling £21,000 from the group while serving as its treasurer between April 26 2013 and November 30 2015.
Some of the money should have been donated to Perth and Kinross food bank, according to the charge.
Changed impression over time
Miss Leckie – a former Scottish Socialist Party MSP – told the jury at Glasgow Sheriff Court she first met McGarry at the gathering when WFI was formed in 2012.
She said she believed McGarry was “extremely energetic and competent”.
The former Glasgow East SNP MP, originally from Fife, was in charge of the group’s finances, with Miss Leckie as a signatory for the cheques.
She stated her view of McGarry changed in time, adding: “She was more of a flap than my impression had been earlier.”
She said: “In hindsight, I wish I was more careful and more suspicious.
“I trusted Natalie, I was impressed by her, I thought she was competent and coping.”
She said there were no “alarm bells” ringing until a financial report was to be compiled for the Electoral Commission after the 2014 referendum.
McGarry refused an offer of help and said some gaps in the finances could be explained by a build-up of merchandise in a Glasgow lock-up.
‘Felt a bit of a fool’
Miss Leckie said she was approached by McGarry on various occasions to sign cheques to “pay wages” of WFI employees towards the referendum date in September 2014.
She said: “It was for her to pay wages or whatever she said she was paying.
“I had no reason to think she wasn’t using it for WFI expenses.”
Miss Leckie stated McGarry started avoiding her before a meeting between the pair later took place.
The witness said: “I said ‘have you paid any WFI money on your own expenses’ and she said ‘absolutely not’.
“I felt like a bit of a fool but she said she hadn’t.
“I think over the whole period I was starting think in hindsight that my reliance on Natalie had actually been engineered by her and the position she put myself in to signing blank cheques.”
Stopped believing accused
The witness stated she was told by McGarry that “everything was a mess” and she was “burying her head in the sand.”
Miss Leckie stated it became apparent she “couldn’t believe any word she was saying.”
McGarry is also accused of embezzling £4,661 between April 9 2014 and August 10 2015 while treasurer, secretary and convenor of Glasgow Regional Association of the SNP.
The trial continues before sheriff Tom Hughes.
