Former MP Natalie McGarry has lodged an appeal after being jailed for embezzling £25,000 from the SNP and a pro-independence group.
The 41-year-old from Inverkeithing was sentenced to two years at Glasgow Sheriff Court in June.
McGarry was found guilty of taking £19,974 while treasurer of Women for Independence.
She also embezzled further £4,661 while treasure, secretary and convener of the Glasgow Regional Association of the SNP.
McGarry – who denied the accusations – had been the MP for Glasgow East between 2015 and 2017.
The Appeal Court in Edinburgh confirmed papers have now been lodged against both the conviction and jail-term.
The details of the grounds of the appeal are not known.
No date has been fixed for any possible court hearing.
Former soldier rapist
A former paratrooper from Fife who raped three women within four years has been warned he faces an extended jail term. Serial sex offender Alan Adsley, 40,- already in prison for attempted murder – attacked his victims in Kirkcaldy between 2016 and 2020.
Police pursuit
A speeding driver nearly smashed into a police van while racing through Blairgowrie.
William McPhee, 27, of the town’s Glenalmond Road abandoned his car and fled on foot.
He was found guilty of dangerous driving after a trial at Perth Sheriff Court and further convicted of driving without insurance and failing to stop for a uniformed officer.
The court heard he drove a black Hyundai through Wellmeadow at excessive speed, while failing to keep a proper lookout, at around 10.30pm on April 17 last year.
He overtook a car and a bus at a bend in the road, where he would have been unable to see any oncoming traffic.
Moments later, he had a near miss with a police van on a narrow country road near Rattray.
PC Julie Hoskins told the trial: “There was a vehicle that came in the opposite direction at speed towards us.
“It caused me to slam on the brakes.”
She said the car “squeezed” past and “took off.”
Later that night, the same car was spotted driving on a footpath with its lights switched off, in a failed attempt to evade detection.
McPhee was spotted getting out of the car and running off into the darkness.
He was fined £300 and banned from driving for a year.
Taxi driver dealer
A taxi driver caught with thousands of pounds worth of class-A drugs, and illegal PAVA spray and a stun gun in his Dundee home has been jailed. Scott Cuthill will spend 22 months behind bars after admitting being a drug dealer and owning the weapons earlier this year.
Child abuse pensioner
A 68-year-old man from Cardenden has admitted downloading child abuse images over a period of more than three years.
William Kirk, of Woodend Park, appeared at Dunfermline Sheriff Court having admitted that between October 8 2018, and October 31 last year, he took or made indecent images of children.
The court heard police searched Kirk’s home on January 5 this year and his wife confirmed he had a mobile phone number police believed was associated with downloading illicit content.
A search of the phone and a tablet uncovered images of young females, which police described as being “indeterminate” but concerning.
They also found suspicious search terms in his internet history.
Kirk’s devices were taken for further examination and he was arrested two weeks later after 12 explicit images were found on the phone.
Sheriff McCulloch released Kirk on bail, placed him on the Sex Offenders Register and ordered reports ahead of sentencing on August 31.
Domestic ‘demon’
A domestic abuse “demon” who trapped two ex-girlfriends in a horrific and terrifying cycle of violence has been caged for four years. Kevin McLaren, from Crieff, was ordered to stay away from his victims for the rest of his life.
Fife firebug
A Fife man has been remanded after admitting setting fires in Ballingry.
At Dunfermline Sheriff Court, HMP Perth inmate Robert Gunn admitted starting fires in Cleikimin Cresent.
Gunn, 31, admitted that on March 28 this year, he set fire to a car parked outside a property there.
Just over two weeks later, he set fire to the contents of a bin at a different property, an offence aggravated by involving his partner or former partner.
The second plaze caused extensive damage to bins, scorched the wall of the house and melted guttering.
Sheriff Charles MacNair remanded him and ordered reports ahead of sentencing on September 1.
Reformed characters
Teenagers who battered a man in a queue for a New Year’s McDonalds have avoided jail after a court heard they have “turned their lives around”. Layton Chaplin and Jay Ciebrant, both 18, received community service instead.
The full caseload of the Dundee Crime and Courts Team can be found here and why not join the conversation at our Facebook group.
