Two senior figures linked to the Conservative Party’s 2024 general election campaign have pleaded guilty to cheating offences after using confidential information about the election date to place bets.
Anthony Lee, the party’s former director of campaigning, admitted two offences at Southwark Crown Court on 10 September. His wife, Laura Lee, formerly known as Laura Saunders, pleaded guilty to one offence.
Anthony Lee’s charges were brought under sections 42(1)(a) and 42(1)(b) of the Gambling Act 2005, covering cheating at gambling and assisting another person to cheat. Laura Lee admitted an offence under section 42(1)(a).
At the time, Anthony Lee held a senior position within Conservative Campaign Headquarters and had access to sensitive internal discussions about when the election would be held. The Gambling Commission said he used that information to bet on the election date and also passed it to his wife.
Laura Lee was then the Conservative Party’s head of international and had been selected as its candidate for Bristol North West. She subsequently placed election-date bets using the confidential information received from her husband.
Former prime minister Rishi Sunak publicly announced on 22 May 2024 that the general election would take place on 4 July. However, preparations for that date had already been taking place inside Downing Street and Conservative Campaign Headquarters before the announcement.
Bookmakers had offered markets allowing customers to wager on when the election would be called. The regulator’s case centres on the defendants having access to information that was unavailable to ordinary bettors, giving them an unfair advantage in those markets.
The latest guilty pleas bring the number of people to have admitted offences in the investigation to four. Former Conservative MP Craig Williams, who served as Sunak’s parliamentary private secretary, and Amy Hind pleaded guilty in June 2026.
Williams had access to discussions involving the prime minister and senior Conservative officials before placing bets on the election date. Hind, who had previously worked for the Conservative Party, also admitted using confidential information to wager on when the election would be held.
The Gambling Commission began investigating the issue in June 2024 and formally charged 15 people in April 2025 over suspected use of advance information to gain an advantage in election betting markets. Ten defendants are still due to face trials scheduled for September 2027 and January 2028.
Anthony Lee, Laura Lee and Amy Hind are scheduled to be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on 23 October 2026. Williams will be sentenced separately at a later date.
The case has also highlighted the difficulties bookmakers face when monitoring political betting. Enhanced checks already apply to politically exposed persons, but political or government connections alone do not prevent customers from gambling. The central compliance issue is whether bettors are using confidential information unavailable to the wider market.