Ex-MP Katie Wallis Handed Conditional Discharge Over Passport Image Used to Access Gambling Site

^{Cardiff Crown Court, where former Bridgend MP Katie Wallis was sentenced on 2 November 2026. (Photo: DaHuzyBru / Wikimedia Commons)}

Katie Wallis, the former Conservative MP for Bridgend, was given a conditional discharge for nine months at Cardiff Crown Court on 2 November 2026 after admitting she digitally altered an image of her passport to get onto an online gambling site. The offence, under the Computer Misuse Act, dates from April 2022, when Wallis was a sitting MP.

The case is a reminder of how self-exclusion is meant to work. Operators licensed in Great Britain must check a customer's age and identity before play, and must honour a request to be blocked. A £150,000 fine for a Leicester operator that ignored self-exclusion rules showed the regulator expects that to hold on the ground as well as online.

What the Court Heard

Wallis, who represented Bridgend from 2019 to 2024 and uses female pronouns, was due to stand trial on two charges of possessing a false passport. She has been formally found not guilty of both after agreeing to plead guilty to a single Computer Misuse Act offence instead.

Prosecution barrister Richard Posner told the court that Wallis had a ‘recognised gambling problem’ and had registered with GamStop, the national self-exclusion service, to deal with it. In April 2022, while in what he described as ‘acute psychiatric distress’, she used her own computer to edit the date on a passport image and gain access to a gambling site.

The court heard that Wallis held a genuine passport that had not been altered, and that she had not tried to use anyone else's image. She deposited money on the site, which was lost. No one else suffered a financial loss, and the incident happened once, on what the court was told was an impulse.

The Judge's Reasons

Judge Shomon Khan accepted that this was a ‘single impulsive’ act during a period of psychological distress and said Wallis had provided ‘compelling personal mitigation’. Passing sentence, he said her culpability and the harm caused were at the lowest possible level, noting that no data belonging to another person was accessed and no computer system was damaged.

‘The only person who suffered financial loss was you,’ Judge Khan told Wallis, citing her guilty plea, the medical evidence and the length of time the case had taken.

In a written basis of plea, Wallis said the gambling problem had been in remission when she was elected in December 2019 and had not affected her work as an MP. She said it has not recurred and is no longer a feature of her life. The court was told she has since reapplied to be blocked from gambling sites.

The court also heard that Wallis was dealing with a serious mental disorder at the time, after coming out as transgender while serving as an MP, and had publicly disclosed being a victim of rape. Posner said she had co-operated with the prosecution to reach the outcome.

Why It Matters for Operators

For licensed operators, the practical point is that identity checks are the first line of defence for self-excluded customers. Gambling Commission rules already require them. Players who slip past those checks are often pointed towards sites outside the GamStop scheme, which sit outside UK licensing altogether.

A conditional discharge means Wallis will not be punished further unless she commits another offence in the next nine months. The court heard that the delay in bringing the case was not her doing, and the judge took it into account alongside the professional and reputational consequences she has already faced.