FRAUDSTER Natalie McGarry’s debt problems stretched back nearly fifteen years, it can be revealed.

McGarry, a former Nationalist MP who was jailed recently for embezzlement, was pursued in court in 2004 over a £5,000-plus sum when she lived in Aberdeen.

McGarry was a high profile independence supporter who was elected as the SNP MP for Glasgow East in 2015.

However, within months of her election, she became embroiled in allegations that she had misappropriated cash raised by the Women for Independence (WFI) campaign group, at which she had been the treasurer.

SNP activist: why I helped expose Natalie McGarry for her crimes

She was later charged and pled guilty to embezzling over £25,000 from WFI and the Glasgow Regional Association of the SNP.

McGarry spent some of the money on rent, a holiday to Spain, payments to her Tory councillor husband David Meikle, as well as using the cash for what the court judgement described as “Barclaycard Debts”.

Sheriff Crozier, who jailed her for eighteen months, said at the time: “There is no alternative than a custodial sentence as you have shown no remorse.”

McGarry was freed within days after succeeding in securing interim liberation ahead of a potential appeal against her conviction and sentence.

It has now emerged that McGarry, who is believed to have studied for a law degree in Aberdeen, had financial problems that predate her political activism.

In 2004, First National Consumer Finance Ltd - a firm providing credit - applied for an inhibition against McGarry over a £5,879 debt.

In Scots law, an inhibition prevents a debtor from selling or disposing of any assets before the money owed is repaid.

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A summary of the document stated that McGarry’s whereabouts were “unknown” and the inhibition was discharged in 2006.

In an interview with the Herald on Sunday last week, Kathleen Caskie, who was one of the campaigners who exposed the former MP, recalled suggesting to McGarry that she could pay a WFI bill by putting it on a credit card.

Caskie said: “She said she couldn’t have a credit card because when she was a student the girl she shared a flat with ran up catalogue debt in her name. So she said she had a bad credit history. It seemed a bit odd that she would have bad credit because somebody else had run it up in her name.”

“In retrospect that should have been a major alarm bell, but then you can’t say to someone ‘I think you’re dodgy because you don’t have a credit card’.”

The SNP was asked for comment.