Mcgarry ‘lied repeatedly about pro-independence group’s finances’

A woman has told a court she was repeatedly lied to by former MP Natalie Mcgarry about the financial running of a pro-scottish independence group of which they were part.

Kathleen Caskie was employed by Women For Independence (WFI) in the lead-up to the independence referendum in 2014 and continued to work in the running of the organisation on a voluntary basis afterwards.

The 56-year-old told a jury she was “being given the runaround” by the former MP, who was treasurer for the group at the time, over some of WFI’S financial matters.

Mcgarry, 40, is accused of misappropriating more than £25,000 from two campaign groups, including WFI. Mcgarry, who represented Glasgow East for the SNP, allegedly embezzled £21,000 while treasurer of WFI.

A second charge states Mcgarry took £4,661 between April 9 2014 and August 10 2015 when she was treasurer of Glasgow Regional Association (GRA) of the SNP. Mcgarry denies the charges.

At Glasgow Sheriff Court yesterday, Ms Caskie was asked about several WFI debts.

The court saw an email from Stirling Council chasing payment for venue hire for an event WFI hosted in 2015. The email, addressed to Ms Caskie, read: “I need to speak to you about an invoice that remains outstanding for £326.40.”

The witness said: “This was really embarrassing. I was lied to. I was told cheques had been sent, cheques had been sent, cheques had been sent.

“I was thrown into panic. I became really cross. Natalie was telling me rubbish that she had sent cheques and none of it was true.”

Prosecutor Alastair Mitchell said: “You had been told by Natalie that this event had been paid for?” Ms Caskie replied: “Yes. Several times. I was being given the runaround and I was really angry.”

The court was shown a financial report prepared by Mcgarry before the WFI’S

AGM in 2015, which Ms Caskie described as “embarrassing”.

She said: “It just wasn’t up to scratch. It wasn’t what you would expect any intelligent person to write. It was just weirdness.” She added: “It was just numbers and sentences.”

Ms Caskie said the report was “gobbledegook”.

Allan Macleod, defending, read out a statement Ms Caskie gave to police where she described WFI as being run in a “chaotic fashion” by Mcgarry and former WFI member Shona Mcalpine.

The witness agreed, telling court “it was chaotic as decisions were not being made properly through the committee”. The jury was then shown an email from former member and co-founder of WFI Carolyn Leckie in which she said there was “too much pressure on Shona and particularly Natalie”.

Macleod asked if this was the case, to which Ms Caskie replied: “Broadly, yes.” She told the court: “It became clear that Natalie was not capable of managing financial matters.”

Macleod questioned the witness as to why Mcgarry remained in charge of WFI finances until 2015, to which Ms Caskie said: “No one could get anything off her.

“No one could get passwords, receipts. It was like we were being held at ransom.”

The trial continues.