Former Conservative MP Katie Wallis has been given a nine-month conditional discharge after admitting digitally altering a passport image to gain access to an online gambling website while she was self-excluded from such services.
At Cardiff Crown Court, Wallis pleaded guilty to a Computer Misuse Act offence dating from April 2022. She had been due to stand trial on charges of possessing a false passport and possessing a false passport with improper intention, but Judge Shomon Khan formally entered not-guilty pleas to both after the new plea was accepted.
The court heard that Wallis used her own computer to alter the date on an image of her own passport. Her physical passport was genuine and had not been altered, and the case did not involve another person’s identity, data or financial loss.
Wallis had registered with Gamstop, the national self-exclusion scheme that prevents registered users from accessing gambling websites. Her written basis of plea said she knew operators were not authorised to grant her access because of that exclusion. She deposited money into the account and lost it, and later reapplied to be blocked from gambling sites.
Prosecutor Richard Posner told the court that Wallis had a recognised gambling problem and acted during a period of acute psychiatric distress. Her defence said she had been managing a serious mental disorder and the emotional consequences of coming out as transgender.
Judge Khan found the conduct was a single, impulsive and unsophisticated act during psychological distress. He said culpability and harm were at the lowest possible level, noting there had been no damage to a computer system or loss to anybody else. The judge also took account of Wallis’s guilty plea, medical evidence, delay not caused by her, personal mitigation and professional and reputational consequences.
The conditional discharge means Wallis could be resentenced in the case if she commits another offence during the nine-month period. She was also ordered to pay a £26 statutory surcharge.
Wallis represented Bridgend from 2019 until 2024 and was formerly known as Jamie Wallis. She became the first openly transgender MP in the House of Commons in 2022. Her written plea said her gambling problem predated her election, had been in remission when she became an MP, and had not recurred since the conduct at issue or affected her parliamentary performance apart from this incident.
