FORMER MP Natalie McGarry has formally denied embezzlement charges at Glasgow Sheriff Court.

The 37-year-old was last year accused of stealing more than £40,000, most of it from the Women for Independence group she helped to set up ahead of the 2014 referendum.

On Thursday Ms McGarry appeared for the first time in person to face three charges of embezzlement and one of failure to disclose “encrypted electronic data”. 

The former Glasgow East MP is now expected to face a trial of up to six weeks starting in late April. 

She did not speak during what was a procedural hearing. Her not-guilty pleas to all charges were entered by her advocate, John McElroy. 

Sheriff Paul Crozier continued her bail. 

Ms McGarry, who is also charged under her married name Meikle, was a prominent Yes campaigner ahead of the 2014 independence referendum.

According to papers filed at court, prosecutors claim she embezzled money while treasurer of the Women for Independence group, which she helped found in 2012, and while also treasurer, secretary and convener of the SNP’s Glasgow Regional Association.

It is alleged that between January 2012 and November 2015 Ms McGarry, in the course of her role as treasurer for WFI, embezzled £33,011.

It is further claimed she transferred funds raised through fundraising events into her personal account, failed to transfer charitable donations to the Perth and Kinross food bank and to Positive Prison Positive Futures.

She also allegedly used cheques held in the name of Women for Independence to deposit money into her own account.

The second charge claims that between April 9, 2014 and August 10, 2015 she embezzled £4,661.

While serving as treasurer, secretary and convenor of the SNP's Glasgow Regional Association, she is accused of using cheques in their name and pay expenses not spent by them or sap and “retain reimbursements” which she was not entitled.

The charge also claims while in that role she used cheques and money from donated funds to deposit money in to her own accounts.

The third embezzlement charge totalling £3891, allegedly took place between February 1, 2014 and June 17, 2014.

Ms McGarry allegedly transferred money into her own account that was raised through an online crowdfunding campaign which she set up, to raise money for online body “Yes Glasgow”, an organisation set up to campaign for an independent Scotland.

Ms McGarry faces a final charge of failing to provide a passcode for a mobile phone seized from her by police, in August 2016.

The campaigner was selected as the SNP candidate for Glasgow East in the 2015 general election.

She went on to beat Labour’s Margaret Curran, a former Scottish Executive minister, by 10,387 votes in what became a landslide for her party. She had previously stood as a a candidate for Holyrood in the 2014 Cowdenbeath by-election.

She resigned the party whip just six months after being elected to Westminster as allegations of financial impropriety first emerged. 

Ms McGarry sat as an independent until the general election of May 2017. 
She was not re-selected by her party to stand in the Glasgow East constituency in the 2017 general election. The seat was held by the SNP and its new candidate, David Linden.

Ms McGarry, a mother-of-one, is married to Glasgow Conservative councillor David Meikle and lives in Clarkston.

Scores of witnesses are expected to be called in the trial, which is scheduled to begin before Sheriff Crozier in Glasgow after Easter.