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.

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.

Katharine Diamond, General Counsel at the Gambling Commission, said: “I’d like to thank colleagues across the Gambling Commission, particularly in our intelligence, enforcement, counsel and legal teams, for their hard work in bringing this case to this point.

“This is a significant case and a first of its kind for the Commission, demonstrating our commitment to protecting the integrity of betting markets.

“Betting markets must be fair and must not be undermined by people using confidential information for their own benefit.

“These convictions demonstrate the importance of protecting the integrity of gambling markets and acting where there is evidence that individuals have sought to cheat.

“We will continue to investigate suspected criminal activity and use our powers to protect the integrity of gambling.”

Anthony Lee and Laura Lee are to pay £1,000 each prosecution costs. No order for costs was made in respect of Amy Hind.

The court heard that the date of the 2024 General Election was announced by then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on 22 May 2024. 

Before the announcement, there had been significant planning for an election to be held on 4 July, including discussions at 10 Downing Street and among staff at Conservative Campaign Headquarters.

In the period before the announcement, gambling operators offered markets on when the General Election would be held.

Anthony Lee was the Conservative Party’s Director of Campaigning and, through his role, was party to confidential discussions about the timing of the General Election. He used that information to place bets and passed the information to his wife, Laura Lee.

Laura Lee, who was Head of International for the Conservative Party and a Conservative candidate at the 2024 General Election, placed bets on the election date using confidential information passed to her by her husband.

Amy Hind, who had previously worked for the Conservative Party and was working for the NHS at the time, placed bets after receiving confidential information about when the General Election would be called.

The Commission has previously announced that Craig Williams pleaded guilty to an offence of cheating in relation to betting on the date of the 2024 General Election. He will be sentenced at a later date.

Simon Chatfield, Paul Place, Iain Makepeace, James Ward, Thomas James, Russell George, Charlotte Lang, Jacob Willmer, Jeremy Hunt and Nick Mason are also charged with offences of cheating relating to bets placed on the date of the 2024 General Election and they are due to stand trial in September 2027 and January 2028.