Drug-smuggling influencer out of prison after just 16 weeks

Scottish influencer Ellie Crampsie, jailed in April for smuggling £150,000 worth of cannabis into Edinburgh Airport from Thailand, has already left prison after serving just 16 weeks of her 16-month sentence. She was released under Scotland's Home Detention Curfew scheme and has since posted images of herself at a music festival, prompting criticism that the justice system is too lenient towards offenders.

Crampsie, 23, of Broomhouse in Glasgow, was caught with more than 17 kilograms of cannabis vacuum-packed in a suitcase on 16 April last year, having flown from Thailand via Paris. She was sentenced at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in April after pleading guilty, with the sheriff accepting she had been "naive and potentially taken advantage of" by a former partner. Her early release follows a Scottish Government amendment from last October allowing short-term prisoners to qualify for curfew release after serving 15 per cent of their sentence, rather than a quarter, while also raising the maximum curfew period from 180 to 210 days. Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Stephen Kerr condemned the release as a "shocking example" of soft-touch justice, while the Scottish Prison Service said releases follow careful risk assessment with monitoring in place.