{"id":180463,"date":"2025-06-13T07:06:21","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T07:06:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/180463\/"},"modified":"2025-06-13T07:06:21","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T07:06:21","slug":"married-couple-from-bristol-due-in-court-today-over-suspicious-election-betting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/180463\/","title":{"rendered":"Married couple from Bristol due in court today over suspicious election betting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s alleged they used confidential information to gamble on the timing of the 2024 general election<\/p>\n<p>07:29, 13 Jun 2025Updated 07:31, 13 Jun 2025<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1749798380_681_0_The-first-hearing-is-set-to-take-place-at-Westminster-Magistrates-Court-in-London-on-July-2-Nick-A.jpeg\" alt=\"Westminster Magistrates\u2019 Court in London\" loading=\"eager\"  \/>Westminster Magistrates\u2019 Court(Image: PA Archive\/PA Images)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">A married couple from Bristol are due in court today charged with <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bristolpost.co.uk\/all-about\/crime\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">gambling offences<\/a> relating to suspicious betting activity relating to the 2024 general election.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Anthony Lee, 47, and Laura Saunders, 37, will appear at <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bristolpost.co.uk\/all-about\/courts\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Westminster Magistrates&#8217; Court<\/a> later this morning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Saunders and Lee were charged after bets were placed on the timing of the 2024 general election, according to the Gambling Commission.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Saunders was the <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bristolpost.co.uk\/all-about\/conservative-party\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Conservative<\/a> candidate for Bristol North West during the election.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Saunders was suspended by the party nine days before polling day and the seat was <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bristolpost.co.uk\/news\/bristol-news\/bristol-north-west-general-election-9387760\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">won by Labour MP Darren Jones<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Lee, who is known as Tony Lee, was the campaign chief for the Conservatives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Lee took a leave of absence during the campaign when he was implicated in the scandal.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/3_Screenshot-2024-06-20-at-073324-ezgifcom-webp-to-jpg-converter.jpg\" alt=\"Tory candidate for Bristol North West Laura Saunders is the second Conservative MP hopeful facing the Gambling Commission over election-date bets\" loading=\"lazy\"  \/>Former Tory candidate for Bristol North West Laura Saunders <\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Among the 15 who will appear in court today is former Tory MP Craig Williams, who was the MP for Montgomeryshire.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Russell George, the Tory Senedd member for Montgomeryshire, and Nick Mason, a former chief data officer for the party, are also facing charges.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">The investigation, which began in June 2024 as the election campaign took place, focused on &#8220;individuals suspected of using confidential information&#8221;. It is alleged that they had advance knowledge of the proposed election date.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">This information was used to gain an unfair advantage in betting markets, according to the Gambling Commission.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Such actions would be considered a criminal offence under the Gambling Act 2005.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \"><a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bristolpost.co.uk\/all-about\/courts\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Court<\/a> proceedings are expected to begin at 10am.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It&#8217;s alleged they used confidential information to gamble on the timing of the 2024 general election 07:29, 13&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,748,527,30,393,14139,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-180463","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-conservative-party","11":"tag-courts","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-general-election","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114674793651233048","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}