FORMER SNP MP Natalie McGarry has lost a bid to withdraw pleas of guilty over embezzling more than £25,600 from pro-independence organisations, writes Martin Williams.

The 37-year-old, from Clarkston, pleaded guilty to two charges of embezzlement when she appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Court on April 24.

She embezzled £21,000 from Women for Independence in her role as treasurer of the organisation.

But when she appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Court, instead of being sentenced, Allan MacLeod, representing McGarry applied to withdraw the plea to a not guilty, claiming there was “undue pressure” on her to admit the offences.

However, Sheriff Paul Crozier rejected the motion at the end a hearing lasting almost an hour-and-a-half, saying he had “listened very carefully to what was said”. 

The former MP transferred money raised through fundraising events into her personal bank accounts and failed to transfer charitable donations to Perth and Kinross food bank and to Positive Prison, Positive Future between April 26 2013 and November 30 2015.

McGarry, who represented Glasgow East but did not seek re-election in 2017, also used cheques drawn on the Women for Independence bank account to deposit money into her own account.

She also admitted embezzling £4,661.02 in the course of her role as treasurer, secretary and convener of the Glasgow Regional Association of the SNP between April 9 2014 and August 10 2015.

The 37-year-old originally faced a third charge of embezzlement and a charge she refused to give police the pass code for a mobile phone they had seized but the Crown accepted her not guilty pleas to those charges.

Mr MacLeod said the motion was an “exceptional case” but that there was “clear prejudice to the accused” in that she “felt she had no choice but to enter the (guilty) plea after parting company with her solicitors.

McGarry represented herself when she appeared in the dock last week.

“Her position throughout and position today is that while she accepts that her financial organisation may have been haphazard at no point has she ever accepted that she dishonestly misappropriated any of those funds,” said Mr MacLeod.

Mr MacLeod indicated he wanted the sheriff to remove himself from the case, which he later withdrew.

Mr MacLeod said McGarry had said Sheriff Crozier had said, “make no mistake the trial will start tomorrow”.

“That informed her decision and affected her process...” said Mr MacLeod. “My submission is this plea was tendered in circumstances that never should have been.

“This can be remedied by your lordship to allow the pleas to be withdrawn.”

McGarry wept as Mr MacLeod added that a trial “allows the case to get the proper attention it deserves”.

The sheriff warned Mr MacLeod: “Be very careful how you address this. You suggest I recuse myself?”

Mr MacLeod responded saying: “I have done my best not to be critical of anyone.   I don’t mean to be critical of your lordship.”

He said McGarry lived a “very isolated existence” suffering from a type of depression, is on medication, was seeing a psychiatric nurse and arrived in court without legal representation in a “nervous state with anxiety” and felt she had “no alternative” but to plead guilty.

Mr MacLeod said that there were certain evidential aspects of the case which she would “find difficult to prove what happend to certain amounts of money”.

He said that she felt that if she had pled not guilty she faced the prospect of a a long trial without legal representation.

“The alternative would be to commence a six week complex trial in relation to matters she was not certain of evidentially.   To proceed to trial by herself was overwhelming.”

The sheriff said the case had been “ongoing for some time” by the time the pleas were made and that she had been given “a number of opportunities” not to enter a plea.

Sheriff Crozier, before rejecting bid to withdraw the guilty pleas said “there can be no doubt what she was pleading guilty to” saying there had been plenty of discussion taking place.

Sentencing was adjourned till May 10.

She was elected as an SNP member in 2015 but resigned the party whip following the emergence of fraud allegations – which she denied at the time – continuing in Parliament as an independent.

McGarry was charged by police in 2017 over alleged fraud relating to potential missing funds from Women for Independence, which was set up in the run-up to the 2014 Scottish referendum, and the SNP’s Glasgow Regional Association.

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