By Tom Gordon

GLASGOW East MP Natalie McGarry has been charged by the police in connection with alleged fraud.

It is understood the charges relate to a five-figure sum missing from the Women for Independence group and the SNP’s Glasgow Regional Association.

Ms McGarry's solicitor Aamer Anwar said: "Natalie McGarry attended with myself this morning on a voluntary basis for an interview with Police Scotland.

"She was detained and questioned.

"Following this interview she was charged with several offences, including the embezzlement of funds, breach of trust, and offences under the Scottish Referendum Act 2013.

"She will be released today and will be the subject of a report to the Procurator Fiscal."

Ms McGarry, who was elected as the SNP member for Glasgow East in May 2015, has previously denied any wrongdoing.

The niece of the former Scottish Parliament Presiding Officer Tricia Marwick, she was the SNP candidate in the by-election for the Holyrood seat of Cowdenbeath in January 2014, coming second.

During the rest of 2014, Ms McGarry was active in the Women for Independence group (WFI), a group she helped found in 2012.

She was then selected as the SNP candidate for Glasgow East in the 2015 general election, going on to defeat Labour’s Margaret Curran by 10,387 votes.

However in November 2015, WFI called in the police after reporting around £40,000 had gone missing from donations largely raised through crowdfunding campaigns.

Ms McGarry, who had access to the Paypal account used by WFI for its donations, resigned from the SNP whip at Westminster the following day.

The SNP confirmed at the time that it had been aware in “general terms for a few weeks” that WFI had been was examining discrepancies in its finances.

Nicola Sturgeon also said the accusation was “very serious”, but it was important to balance the standards expected of MPs and “due process, fairness and a presumption of innocence.”

Ms McGarry was the second SNP MP to quit the whip shortly after the general election.

In September 2015, Edinburgh West MP Michelle Thomson did so after it emerged her solicitor had been struck off for professional misconduct for his part in 13 deals related to her £1.7m property portfolio.

In May this year, Police Scotland began investigating a second complaint against Ms McGarry, after the SNP’s Glasgow Regional Association reported around £4000 unaccounted for.

Ms McGarry, who had been the group’s convener from 2011 to 2015 and the main signatory on its bank account, again denied wrongdoing.

Ms McGarry has frequently attracted in other ways.

In January she prompted a Twitter row by accusing Rowling after bullying, resulting in a threat of legal proceedings from the Harry Potter author.

In May, Ms McGarry was forced to pay out £10,000 and admit to a “serious mistake” after wrongly accusing a pro-Union campaigner of being a “Holocaust denier” on social media.

She also voted in her wedding dress at Westminster in June after getting her recent marriage to David Meikle, Glasgow only Conservative councillor, blessd in the building’s Undercroft.

Both Ms McGarry and Ms Thomson currently sit as Independent MPs, although Ms Thomson, with the support of the SNP’s 54 MPs, is lobbying the SNP hierarchy be reinstated.

Just before the 2015 election, Ms Sturgeon was asked if she would take responsibility for the SNP’s vetting procedures if some of its candidates were to “blow up” after being elected.

She replied: “Ultimately, it’s one of the responsibilities of leadership. Ultimately the buck stops with me, as it stopped with Alex for the last 10 years as leader. That’s part of being a leader.”

A Police Scotland spokesman said: “We can confirm that on 27 September, a 35-year-old woman was charged in connection with alleged fraud offences. A report will be sent to the Procurator Fiscal.”