Three people linked to Conservatives sentenced after cheating at gambling on general election

Three people linked to the Conservatives, including the party's former director of campaigning, have been given suspended sentences after admitting to cheating at gambling on the 2024 general election date.

Anthony Lee, 49, pleaded guilty in September alongside his wife, Laura Saunders, 38, who appeared in court under her married name.

Lee was responsible for deploying Tory resources for the contest, which then-prime minister Rishi Sunak called for 4 July.

Saunders was the party's head of international, based at head office and had been chosen to run in the Bristol North West constituency.

NHS worker Amy Hind, 36, the wife of Conservative deputy digital director Anthony Hind, pleaded guilty in June to cheating on the date of the election.

In a hearing at Southwark Crown Court, Lee was handed a suspended sentence of 10 months and two weeks in prison for each of his two counts, while Saunders was given a suspended sentence of four weeks and two months. Hind was given six months in prison, also suspended.

All three were also ordered to complete unpaid work, while Lee and Saunders were told to pay compensation totalling more than £10,000.

They were all charged after an investigation found inside information on the date of the 2024 general election had been used to place bets.

Judge Tony Baumgartner said at the sentencing that Lee and Saunders placed bets worth more than £2,000 on the date of the election - which would have generated returns of more than £23,000 if the cheating had not been uncovered.

Hind placed four bets and attempted to make a further three in accounts "opened specifically for the purposes of cheating", the judge said.

Had all seven of her attempts succeeded and gone unnoticed, the return would have been just over £26,000.

Hind had placed more than 3,000 online bets over the years but the ones she put on the election date "were a clear departure from your previous betting history", the judge told her. Hind's previous betting was mostly on sports, he added.

Lee, a key Tory figure, was aware of a Downing Street meeting to discuss possible election dates on 10 March 2024, almost two weeks before the scheduled date was announced.

As the meeting unfolded, Lee and his wife - who were not in attendance - began betting on when the election would be held, the court heard.

"The overwhelming inference is that Anthony Lee was receiving inside information as the meeting went on and was acting upon it," the prosecution said.

Lee was also involved in email correspondence including one chain titled "Crazy idea: Campaign discussion", the court was told.

Craig Williams, a former Sunak aide who was Tory MP for Montgomeryshire and Cardiff North, has also admitted to cheating at gambling. He will be sentenced after other party officials and insiders who are accused of the same charge stand trial.

(c) Sky News 2026: Three people linked to Conservatives sentenced after cheating at gambling on general election