London : Craig Williams, 41, who was parliamentary private secretary to the former PM, was one of a number of individuals arrested over suggestions they had placed bets on the yet-to-be-announced election date.
The former Tory MP for Montgomeryshire and Cardiff North, Williams, admitted using confidential information to place bets on the timing of the election.
Appearing at Southwark Crown Court on Monday, Williams pleaded guilty to cheating at gambling in relation to bets placed on the date of the election.
Allegations against Williams were made in the run-up to the 2024 vote, with the MP losing his seat in the election and the Tories withdrawing their support for his candidacy.
Williams was among 15 people charged with gambling after placing bets on the General Election date.
The Gambling Commission had previously confirmed Williams and 14 others had been charged with gambling offences following an investigation into bets placed on the July 2024 vote.
Williams was part of Mr Sunak’s inner circle, having been appointed to be the former prime minister’s parliamentary private secretary, and he attended a series of planning meetings in Downing Street ahead of the 2024 election.
Williams, of Llanfair Caereinion, Welshpool, Powys, entered his guilty plea at a hearing at Southwark Crown Court on Monday.
He bet £250, £100, and £22.50 on the election date, prosecutors said.
When the scandal first broke, Williams admitted making a “huge error of judgment” when confronted over a £100 bet.
He was first the MP for Cardiff North between 2015 and 2017 before he lost his seat to Labour MP Anna McMorrin.
He was then elected MP for Montgomeryshire at the 2019 general election, and lost his seat at the 2024 election in the wake of the betting scandal, and as the Conservatives faced electoral wipeout across the UK.
Prosecutor Zoe Johnson KC said three further cheating charges, which Williams denies, will be dropped when he is sentenced.
She said Williams, a member of the Privy Council, was “given a privileged position, he was party to a number of meetings in both Downing Street and Conservative headquarters when the date of the general election was discussed”.
“He has now accepted by his plea that he used highly sensitive and confidential information to place bets and to profit,” she said.
Amy Hind, 35, the wife of Conservative deputy digital director Anthony Hind, also pleaded guilty to cheating on the date of the election.
She had placed bets of £10, £5, and £20 on the date of the election, before on May 13 2024 attempting to stake £767 and £700 on a July poll.
Those attempts failed, the court heard, and she attempted to place a £700 bet the following day before successfully placing a £100 bet on a July election, at odds of 11-1.
A separate charge against her husband, 37, that he had cheated at gambling by passing information to his wife was then dropped by prosecutors.
Hind is due to be sentenced by Judge Tony Baumgartner, the Recorder of Westminster, on October 23.
Williams will not be sentenced until co-defendants have stood trial.
