NURSE INFLUENCER KEEPS LICENCE AFTER CANNABIS SMUGGLING CONVICTION

Levi Whalley, a nurse and Instagram influencer with nearly 45,000 followers, retained her nursing licence following a tribunal hearing, despite being convicted of attempting to smuggle cannabis into the UK. Whalley and her friend Sophie Bannister were caught at Birmingham Airport in December 2023 carrying over 35 kilogrammes of the class B drug, valued at £160,000. Whalley's suitcase alone contained 38 packages weighing 19 kilogrammes. The pair claimed they were returning from a shopping trip to New York when Border Force officers discovered the drugs in their luggage.

Whalley was convicted of drug smuggling at Blackburn Magistrates Court in February 2025 and received a 16-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months at Preston Crown Court in April 2025. The Nursing and Midwifery Council had warned it would seek to have her struck off the register. At the NMC tribunal, however, the regulatory body ruled that removing her licence would be "unduly punitive". The tribunal cited that Whalley was experiencing "very difficult" personal circumstances at the time of her arrest. Whalley has worked in healthcare since age 18 and qualified as a nurse in 2019, later specialising as a nurse injector in aesthetic medicine.

The tribunal imposed a 12-month suspension on Whalley's nursing licence instead of permanent removal. She has worked as a botox and filler injector running her own beauty business since her initial suspension in December 2023 and has been unable to practise as a nurse during that period. The NMC did not comment further on the decision.