A FORMER SNP MP whose property deals are at the centre of a police probe secured a £5,000 cheque for a pro-independence group from a convicted mortgage fraudster.

Michelle Thomson also told her board colleagues at Business for Scotland (BfS) that she and Jamie Rae, who had previously been jailed for fifteen months, had “shared business interests”.

Mr Rae confirmed yesterday that he gave Ms Thomson the cheque, but said the gift was never banked.

Ms Thomson was elected as the MP for Edinburgh West in May and was appointed as the Nationalists’ business spokesperson at Westminster.

However, she withdrew from the SNP whip last week amid a furore over her past property transactions.

Her former solicitor, Christopher Hales, was revealed to have been struck off for the role he played in 13 deals linked to M&F Property Solutions, which had Ms Thomson as a partner.

In one case, her former business partner Frank Gilbride bought a property from a cancer sufferer for £64,000 and sold it to Ms Thomson on the same day for £95,000. She then received around £28,000 “cashback” from Mr Gilbride.

Police are examining a number of similar “back to back” property sales linked to M&F Property Solutions and Mr Hales.

However, attention has now turned to Ms Thomson’s spell as a board member of BfS, which launched in 2013 to make the economic case for independence.

In April last year, Ms Thomson emailed senior BfS figures about a donation she had pulled in for the body:

“Not cc’ed in all the Board, but I got a cheque on Friday for £5000 which I shall bank on Monday.”

She added: “As a matter of interest, the meeting hadn’t been specifically about BFS, we have some shared business interests and BFS came up as a by-product.”

The cheque came from Mr Rae, a businessman who is a non-executive director of IT firm Nugensis and the founder of a throat cancer charity.

However, in 1997, he admitted multiple counts of mortgage and housing benefit fraud totalling £133,000.

Falkirk Sheriff Court heard that Mr Rae, who was an SNP councillor at the time, had embarked on an ''extremely complicated and involved'' crime.

The depute fiscal told the court that Mr Rae had helped friends and relatives get mortgages by deception.

The former ice cream salesman was jailed for fifteen months.

Mr Rae said last night he wrote a cheque out to Business for Scotland and gave it to Ms Thomson:

“I met Michelle Thomson that day, probably for the first time. My meeting with her was explicitly to do with Business for Scotland. There would be no other reason for me to meet her.

“One thing that did strike me as a little bit strange...they never ever cashed that cheque. I don’t know why. They cashed the other ones.”

He added: “For the record, I can say categorically I have never had any business dealings with Michelle Thomson.

“I did go to prison for mortgage fraud. I did that when I was very young and I learned a great deal through that process. I was reformed after it and went on to build an international company.”

On Ms Thomson’s email claim about “shared business interests”, he said: “That is BS [bulls**t]...rubbish. I don’t know why she would write that.”

Mr Rae has made donations to the SNP in the past and said he gave around £10,000 to Business for Scotland.

Labour MSP Jackie Baillie said: "This simply raises further questions about who SNP MP Michelle Thomson was associated with. Jamie Rae is a convicted mortgage fraudster. The more we know about this story the more unseemly it becomes."

Ms Thomson's lawyer Aamer Anwar said: “Michelle Thomson states that she has never been involved with Mr Rae in any form of business dealings. The ‘off the cuff’ remark will have been in relation to discussions about business in general. Whilst Mr Rae was convicted in 1997, one can safely assume that 18 years later his sentence has been served.”

A BfS spokesperson said: "We can confirm that Business for Scotland did not receive the £5k donation referred to in the email."