Former SNP MP Natalie McGarry has been jailed for two years for embezzling thousands of pounds from pro-independence groups.
How did the one-time high-flyer from Fife go from being one of the faces of the party’s future to the Glasgow Sheriff Court dock?
Who is Natalie McGarry?
Natalie McGarry was born and raised in Inverkeithing, Fife, in September 1981.
She went from St Columba’s in Dunfermline to Aberdeen University, where she gained a law degree.
Before her parliamentary career, she worked in human resources, as a community officer for unemployed parents and as a policy adviser in a third sector organisation.
She is married to David Meikle, Conservative councillor for Pollokshields until he lost his seat in the May elections this year.
They have one child, announced in 2017 after she fainted in the House of Commons tea room.
Was she destined to be an SNP high-flyer?
McGarry was perhaps always bound for a life fighting for the independence cause.
Her aunt is former Scottish Parliament presiding officer, Tricia Marwick, an SNP MSP for Fife from 1999 to 2016.
McGarry was an SNP activist long before the independence referendum.
She was convener of the SNP’s Glasgow Regional Association (GRA).
She co-founded the Women for Independence (WFI) group in 2012 – a cross-party movement to give women a voice in the campaign – with the likes of MSPs Jeane Freeman and Carolyn Leckie.
McGarry was unsuccessful in gaining candidature for the 2014 European Parliament election but was selected for the 2014 Cowdenbeath by-election.
She lost to Fife Council leader, Labour’s Alex Rowley by nearly 5,500 votes.
She finally became a parliamentarian in the landslide May 2015 general election when she won the Glasgow East seat from Labour incumbent Margaret Curran.
So what went wrong for Natalie McGarry?
Natalie McGarry remained in the SNP for just six more months, resigning in November 2015, following allegations of financial misconduct.
She sat as an independent until the end of the parliamentary session in May 2017.
McGarry was not selected to fight the 2017 general election.
The 40-year-old was accused of embezzling funds from both WFI and the GRA.
She was reported by Ms Freeman after the future health secretary became suspicious about missing money.
Didn’t she admit her crimes?
She did but the circumstances were questionable, to say the least.
McGarry first appeared in court in March 2018 accused of six charges, including three counts of embezzlement, as well as offences under the Scottish Independence Referendum Act 2013 and Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.
It was nearly a year before trial was set, on reduced charges – three of embezzlement and one of failing to disclose a mobile phone passcode to police.
On April 24 2019 she admitted two charges of embezzling more than £25,600 from WFI and the GRA between April 2013 and November 2015
Some of the money she admitted stealing was supposed to have gone to the charities Perth and Kinross Foodbank and to Positive Prison, Positive Future.
Sobbing McGarry was jailed for 18 months after Glasgow Sheriff Court heard she spent the money on rent, a holiday to Spain with her husband, transfers of money to him, and other lifestyle spending,
Her lawyer said: “She describes her life as almost intolerable.”
Why was there a trial?
Judges ruled McGarry had been the victim of a miscarriage of justice and the conviction was quashed.
The reasons could not be made public at the time because the appeal judges also said she would have to stand trial again.
Following her eventual trial, the judgement was published, showing she had been poorly represented and badly advised by the presiding sheriff.
She had been told as she was about to enter court, she would be left without legal representation and would have to fight the trial herself.
The sheriff gave her just ten minutes to decide whether or not to plead guilty.
She pled guilty but had always maintained her innocence.
How did the trial go?
The case moved back to square one as McGarry appeared in court to deny two charges of embezzlement in September 2020.
More than five years after the allegations surfaced, she faced a claim she took £21,000 for her own use in her role as treasurer of the Women for Independence group between April 26 2013 and November 30 2015.
She also denied embezzling £4,661.02 for her own use from the Glasgow Regional Association of the Scottish National Party between April 9 2014 and August 10 2015.
During the six-week trial earlier this year, witnesses including Ms Freeman and Ms Leckie told how their initial trust and faith in McGarry was diminished over time.
Others to give evidence were MPs Anne McLaughlin and John Mason, who said they signed blank cheques for the GRA when asked to do so by McGarry.
Health secretary Humza Yousaf told the jury he loaned McGarry cash to stave off a looming eviction. The £600 was paid back.
Ms Marwick also told the trial she had given her niece thousands of pounds.
McGarry told how she had been “overwhelmed” by her responsibilities but had not stolen money.
The jury disagreed and she was convicted on both counts, although the allegation about money destined for the foodbank and prisons charity was struck from the charge.
She was jailed for two years when she returned to court on June 30.
Sheriff Tom Hughes said: “By your involvement in these offences, you have not only betrayed the trust placed in you by others but your standards have fallen well short of what the public have the right to expect from politicians and MPs.”
