Influencer nurse keeps licence despite being caught smuggling £160,000 worth of cannabis into UK

An influencer nurse has kept her licence despite being caught smuggling £160,000 worth of cannabis into Britain.

Levi Whalley, 32, was stopped in her tracks carrying more than 35kg of the Class-B drug at Birmingham Airport alongside her friend Sophie Bannister.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council had sought to have the mother-of-one from Blackburn struck off the register.

However, an NMC tribunal ruled that removing her licence would be "unduly punitive" given the "very difficult" personal circumstances she faced at the time of the offence.

Whalley, who posts images of her travels to nearly 45,000 Instagram followers, instead received a 12-month suspension.

Her suitcase alone held 38 wrapped packages weighing 19kg.

Border Force officers discovered the drugs in their luggage in December 2023 after the pair claimed they were returning from a "shopping trip" in New York.

Whalley's phone and passport were confiscated, and West Midlands Police referred her case to the NMC.found guilty of drug smuggling at Blackburn Magistrates' Court in February 2025.

Preston Crown Court handed her a 16-month prison sentence in April 2025, suspended for 18 months.

Bannister received a 20-month sentence, also suspended for 18 months.

Whalley narrowly avoided time behind bars despite the scale of the haul.

She had been running a beauty business offering botox and filler injections but has been unable to practise since her suspension in December 2023.

The tribunal heard that Whalley had dreamed of becoming a nurse since childhood and entered healthcare at 18, qualifying in 2019.

She worked at an eye clinic where she rose to a management position before launching her own clinics as a "nurse injector" and later joining a private ophthalmology department.

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The NMC panel summarised her account, saying: "It was after [private] that a friend of yours offered for you to go to New York for the weekend for free and that you and your friend would have to bring back some watches to the UK."

"You explained that you just wanted escapism after everything you had been through, and you thought it would be good for your wellbeing."

She claimed she tried to pull out but "received messages threatening her home and family".

"All the hard work you had done for your nursing career had been thrown away over this very stupid decision. You have so much regret for what you have done."

Whalley completed 80 hours of unpaid work at a charity shop as part of her sentence.

She told the tribunal she was now in a "very different stage of life" as a mother and views the world "differently".

The panel noted her cooperation with the NMC and her "willingness to learn and grow as a person".

"In the specific and unusual circumstances surrounding your offending, the panel concluded that your conviction was not fundamentally incompatible with remaining on the register."

"It therefore concluded that a striking-off order would be disproportionate and unduly punitive in the circumstances."

The panel determined that a 12-month suspension was "appropriate in this case to mark the seriousness of her conviction".

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