The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Politician gave Mcgarry cash to ‘help with bills’
Aformer Scottish Parliament presiding officer gifted her niece, who is accused of embezzling more than £25,000 from proindependence groups, around £300 to £500 per month, a court has heard.
Tricia Marwick, 68, who served as presiding officer from 2011 to 2016, appeared as a witness at Glasgow Sheriff Court yesterday.
Her niece, Natalie Mcgarry, 40, is accused of embezzling £21,000 while treasurer for Women for Independence (WFI) between April 26 2013 and November 30 2015.
The former Glasgow East MP is also accused of taking £4,661 between April 9 2014 and August 10 2015 when she was treasurer, secretary and convener of the Glasgow Regional Association (GRA) of the SNP.
Mcgarry, of Clarkston, denies both charges.
Mrs Marwick, who now serves as chairwoman of NHS Fife, said Mcgarry would visit her at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh “once a month to every six weeks”.
There, Mrs Marwick gave her niece hundreds of pounds, always in cash, she told the court.
Defence agent, Allan Macleod, asked the former MSP to quantify how much she gifted Mcgarry between April 2013 and November 2015.
Mrs Marwick said she could not quantify the exact number “with any great certainty”; however, she said it was “somewhere between £3,000 and £5,000”.
She told prosecutor Alastair Mitchell that the sum could vary on occasion, but never ran into thousands on a single visit.
Mrs Marwick told the court she wanted to make it easier for her niece to get into politics after experiencing how hard it could be herself.
She said: “I regularly gave Natalie between £300 and £500 when she came to see me.
“I wanted (the money) to be spent on herself and her household bills. When I was a young woman I was just starting out and had no income.
“I knew how difficult it was to take money out of the household income for political work. I wanted to give her a helping hand.”
Mrs Marwick was elected as an SNP MSP in 1999 before retiring in 2016.
She also told Mr Mitchell the money was “always” given to Mcgarry in cash, after the court heard the former MP received thousands each month from family to help with household bills.
Mrs Marwick was asked to describe her relationship with Mcgarry by Mr Macleod.
She said: “I’ve known Natalie since she was a very young child. Her family had a trauma when she was around 18 when her brother was killed in a house fire.
“After Natalie left Inverkeithing I didn’t see much of her. I’ve always found her committed, energetic and bubbly.”
Earlier, Mcgarry wept in court as she said her life had been “ripped apart” by the accusations.
She said: “I wouldn’t have come here, with all of the trauma it has caused, if I didn’t believe I had done nothing wrong.
“My life has been ripped apart. I haven’t done anything wrong. This has been hellish.”
Mcgarry told the court the only “mistake” she made was forgetting to pay a media training bill.
Mr Mitchell showed the court evidence of a £2,000 cheque from the GRA addressed to Mcgarry on April 28 2015.
It was intended that Mcgarry would use this cash to pay back Enterprise Screen who gave SNP candidates media training prior to the 2015 General Election.