Natalie McGarry: Ex-MP used loan to pay women's organisation, jury told

Ex-SNP MP Natalie McGarry used a loan to pay back cash to the independence organisation she is accused of embezzling money from, a court heard.

Former health secretary Jeane Freeman told a jury that £6,436 of Women for Independence (WFI) cash that landed in Ms McGarry's bank account was returned.

Ms McGarry, 40, who represented Glasgow East, denies allegedly embezzling more than £25,000 from two organisations.

The allegations cover a period between April 2013 and August 2015.

One charge claims the former politician embezzled £21,000 while she was WFI treasurer between April 2013 and November 2015.

The second states Ms McGarry, of Clarkston, East Renfrewshire, embezzled £4,661 between April 2014 and August 2015.

It is alleged that she used cheques drawn from WFI's bank account to pay expenses not incurred by the group.

Prosecutor Alistair Mitchell said it was agreed that the source of the funds paid back to WFI was a loan payment to Ms McGarry.

Asked if the group was aware of that, Ms Freeman replied "no", and also said she was unaware that money from three crowd-funders were transferred to Ms McGarry's bank account.

Asked where the witness expected the money to go, she replied: "The WFI bank account."

Ms Freeman, 68, also said she was unaware that from March 2014, the organisation's PayPal account was connected to Natalie McGarry's bank account.

It was also put to the former minister that Ms McGarry was "not an accountant" and did not "have any accountancy qualifications".

Ms Freeman responded: "No, and I feel people who have the title of treasurer of a small organisation would fall into that category.

"It's not difficult to know how to record income and expenditure and get information to support that expenditure."

Asked if Ms McGarry was scatty and chaotic, Ms Freeman said it was fair to say that at times she appeared to be quite disorganised but was generally unwilling to accept any help, despite an offer from an accountant in the group.

The ex-minister said Ms McGarry had told her the accounts were all over the place when they discussed returns to be made to the Electoral Commission after the 2014 independence referendum.

The court was shown an email from Ms McGarry to Ms Freeman and another group member, Carolyn Leckie, a former MSP, from September 2015.

It read: "I'm more than prepared to pay what you see is the outstanding balance until it's proved undoubtedly what was paid out, at which point it can be reimbursed."

Allan Macleod, defending, suggested to Ms Freeman that she thought the gap in the group's finances may be around £10,000.

But once a report appeared to show the discrepancy was £31,824.10, the former health secretary said she contacted a lawyer.

Mr McLeod said: "You don't need a lawyer to tell you 'it is going to be criminal behaviour, take it to the police', you knew that yourself."

Ms Freeman added that in her view "it was criminal behaviour" but the decision to inform the police "wasn't my decision alone". "It was important, we felt, to have that step removed from the organisation."

The trial continues before Sheriff Tom Hughes.