Image credit: Source: Gambling Commission court reporting. Never imply stock depicts the actual event.
Anthony Lee, a former Conservative Party director of campaigning, pleaded guilty on September 10 to two counts of cheating under the Gambling Act 2005, and his wife Laura Lee, formerly the party's head of international, pleaded guilty to one count, the Gambling Commission said. Both entered their pleas at Southwark Crown Court.
Prosecutors say Anthony Lee had access to confidential discussions at Conservative Campaign Headquarters about the timing of the 2024 general election before Rishi Sunak announced the July 4 date on May 22. He placed bets on that date ahead of the announcement and passed the information to his wife, who bet on it too. Both offences fall under section 42(1)(a) of the Gambling Act 2005, which covers cheating at gambling; Anthony Lee's second count is under section 42(1)(b), doing something to enable another person to cheat.
The Lees join a growing list of admissions in what the Commission calls Operation Scott, its investigation into election-date betting inside the Conservative Party. Former MP Craig Williams, who served as Sunak's parliamentary private secretary, pleaded guilty in June after placing three bets worth £250, £100 and £22.50 through Ladbrokes on May 19, three days before the announcement. Amy Hind, another defendant, has also pleaded guilty. Ten more people charged in the case face trial in September 2027 and January 2028.
Anthony Lee, Laura Lee and Hind are due to be sentenced together at Southwark Crown Court on October 23. Williams will not be sentenced until the remaining defendants' trials conclude, given his position as a former sitting MP inside the same betting ring.
The Gambling Commission's new Chair, Ruth Evans, takes over an organisation still working through a case that has run for two years since the original bets were placed and reached into the heart of a governing party's election machine. It sits alongside the Commission's other live priority, disrupting the illegal betting market, as a reminder that cheating enforcement under the Gambling Act extends well past unlicensed operators to anyone, including a prime minister's own staff, who bets on inside information.
The scandal that started with a leaked date is still adding names
Two years after the bets were placed, Operation Scott has not run out of defendants. Fifteen people were originally charged, and with three guilty pleas and Hind's admission now on record, the case is shifting from whether the scandal happened to how far up the party machine the betting actually reached.