Disgraced ex-SNP MP Natalie McGarry JAILED for 18 months over embezzlement
DISGRACED ex-SNP MP Natalie McGarry has been caged for 18 months after embezzling more than £25,000 from pro-Scottish independence groups.
The 37-year-old spent the cash on rent, a Spain holiday and other lifestyle spending, a court heard.
She faced three charges of embezzlement and a charge that she refused to give cops the passcode to a mobile phone they had seized.
She pleaded guilty to two charges of embezzlement then attempted to withdraw her guilty plea later - but that was refused by Sheriff Paul Crozier.
Allan Macleod, representing McGarry, said she has had mental health issues over the years including depression and anxiety.
He claims she has suffered from post-partum depression following the birth of her daughter in 2017.
McGarry sobbed in the dock as her lawyer told Glasgow Sheriff Court earlier this week that she'd suffered a "devastating" miscarriage while pregnant.
And he added how her finances are in a "perilous" state and that her life is "in tatters".
He said: "[McGarry] describes her life as almost intolerable. She is at the lowest point in her life she has ever been.
"Her career is ruined, her reputation is in tatters, she has lost friends, colleagues, her reputation and job, and now her child."
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McGarry was elected as an SNP MP 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.
She was charged by police in 2017 over 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.
McGarry, who represented Glasgow East, did not seek re-election in 2017.
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