UK court sentences three over bets using election-date information

Southwark Crown Court sentenced three people on 23 October 2026 for gambling offences involving confidential information about the date of the 2024 UK general election, the Gambling Commission said. The three had earlier admitted liability for offences under section 42 of the Gambling Act 2005, which covers fraud in gambling. The case was brought by the Gambling Commission.

One defendant received 10 months and two weeks of imprisonment on each count, with the terms to run concurrently and suspended for 12 months, plus 100 hours of unpaid work to be completed within a year. A second defendant was sentenced to four months and two weeks of imprisonment, also suspended for 12 months, with 40 hours of unpaid work over the same period. The third received six months of imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, with 50 hours of unpaid work. All three will be subject to supervision by the relevant services for a year and are banned from using online gambling applications. Two of them were ordered to pay £1,000 each in costs; no payment was ordered for the third.

The events date to spring 2024, when then prime minister Rishi Sunak announced on 22 May that the general election would be held on 4 July. Before the official announcement, planning was already under way on a possible election on that date, including discussions within Downing Street and among officials at the Conservative Party campaign headquarters. During the same period, several betting operators offered markets on the date of the election.

One of the convicted people, then the Conservative Party's director of campaigns, had access through the role to confidential discussions about the timing of the election. According to what emerged in the proceedings, this person used the information to place bets and also passed it to their spouse. The spouse, the Conservative Party's head of international relations and a candidate in the 2024 election, placed bets on the date of the vote using the confidential information received. The other convicted person, who had previously worked for the Conservative Party and was employed by the National Health Service (NHS) at the time, placed bets after receiving confidential information about the calling of the election.

Katharine Diamond, General Counsel at the Gambling Commission, thanked the authority's staff involved in the investigation, citing the intelligence, enforcement and legal teams. She said the case was significant and the first of its kind for the Commission, and that it showed its commitment to protecting the integrity of betting markets. She said betting markets must be fair and must not be compromised by people using confidential information to their own advantage, and that the convictions showed the importance of protecting the integrity of gambling markets and of acting when evidence of attempted fraud emerges.

The Gambling Commission said it will continue to investigate suspected criminal activity and to use its powers to ensure the fairness of the sector. It said the investigation into bets on the date of the 2024 election has not ended with these three convictions: one person has already pleaded guilty to a fraud offence linked to the bets and will be sentenced at a later hearing, and 10 other people are accused of similar offences in the same case. Their trials are scheduled for September 2027 and January 2028, and the accusations against them have yet to be examined in court.