Levi Whalley: Instagram influencer allowed to keep nursing licence after smuggling 19kg of cannabis into UK in suitcase

An Instagram influencer caught attempting to smuggle £160,000 worth of cannabis into the UK alongside a friend has avoided losing her nursing licence.

Levi Whalley faced losing her right to practise after Border Force officers caught her trying to enter Britain with her friend, Sophie Bannister, carrying over 35kg of cannabis.

Whalley, 32, and Bannister claimed that they were returning from a “shopping trip” in New York when officials found the drug packages in their luggage at Birmingham Airport.

Whalley’s suitcase alone contained 38 packages of the class B drug, weighing 19kg.

The single mother of one, from Blackburn, escaped a prison sentence over the offence, but was warned by the nursing regulator that it would push for her to be struck off.

However, at a Nursing and Midwifery Council [NMC] tribunal, Whalley – an Instagram influencer with nearly 45,000 followers, who shares photos of her trips across the world – avoided losing her licence. She has instead been given a 12-month suspension.

The NMC ruled that stripping her of her licence would be “unduly punitive”, and said that she was experiencing a “very difficult” time when she tried to smuggle the drugs.

Whalley has been working as a botox and filler injector, running her own beauty business, since she was suspended and has not been able to practise as a nurse since then.

The NMC heard that she had “always wanted to be a nurse from a very young age”.

She has worked in healthcare since she was 18, and qualified as a nurse in 2019. She then got a job at an eye clinic and was promoted to a management role.

She later started running her own clinics as a “nurse injector”, before working in the ophthalmology department in the private sector until she was suspended in December 2023.

The tribunal heard that Whalley was arrested in December 2023 at Birmingham Airport, following what she claimed was a “three-day shopping trip to New York” with her friend.

She was referred to the NMC by West Midlands Police.

Whalley was convicted of drug smuggling at Blackburn Magistrates Court, Lancs, in February 2025.

In April 2025, she was given a 16-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, at Preston Crown Court.

The NMC tribunal heard she was facing “very difficult circumstances” in her personal life at the time of her arrest, which have “now positively resolved”.

Whalley gave evidence at the NMC tribunal.

The NMC panel, summarising her evidence, said: “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.

“You did not think about the consequences, you made a very irrational decision in the moment.

“You explained that it suddenly hit you an hour before your flight home and after you received the suitcase; you panicked and did not want to go ahead but received messages threatening your home and family.

“It was then at Birmingham Airport you were arrested. You explained that when you got sentenced, you felt you had lost everything.

“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.

“You have not worked as a nurse for two and a half years and you would like to return to nursing in a medical ward as this would give you the chance to build up your nursing skills and work alongside a team.

“You accepted that the conviction was as a result of poor decision making and you can understand how the public would see this.”

She said that as part of her sentence she did 80 hours of unpaid work, which she completed at a charity shop.

Whalley added that she is in a “very different stage of life now” as she is a mother and looks at the world “differently”.

The NMC panel decided against striking her off the register.

The panel said: “The panel bore in mind that a drug-related offence resulting in a conviction is extremely serious.

“The panel noted that the conviction in question is for a specified offence.

“The panel took account of the positive steps you have taken… It noted your engagement with the NMC and with the legal authorities and your participation at this hearing.

“It had evidence before it of your willingness to learn and grow as a person and strengthen your character.

“The panel noted that your insight into the significance of the offence remained limited but considered this was capable of being addressed.

“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 said a 12-month suspension was “appropriate in this case to mark the seriousness of her conviction”.