Glasgow influencer Ellie Crampsie has been released from prison after serving 16 weeks of a 16-month sentence for smuggling cannabis from Thailand into Scotland.
The 23-year-old, who has thousands of social-media followers, was jailed at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on April 24. She was stopped at Edinburgh Airport on April 16 last year after flying from Thailand via Paris on an Air France flight.
Border Force officers found more than 17kg, of cannabis in vacuum-sealed packages in her suitcase. The drugs had a street value of up to GBP151,000.
For foreigners travelling from Thailand, the case is a reminder that legal treatment of cannabis varies sharply between countries. Carrying cannabis across an international border can lead to criminal penalties, regardless of rules in the country of departure.
Released under home detention curfew
Crampsie, of Broomhouse in Glasgow, qualified for early release under Scotland's Home Detention Curfew scheme. A Scottish Government amendment passed last October made short-term prisoners eligible after serving 15 per cent of their sentence, rather than a quarter.
In her case, this meant she could have been released after less than two-and-a-half months. The amendment also increased the maximum curfew period from 180 to 210 days.
The Scottish Prison Service said it does not comment on individuals, but said releases on Home Detention Curfew follow a "careful and considered assessment of risk" with monitoring and restrictions in place.
The Scottish Government said eligible prisoners who pass risk assessments by the Scottish Prison Service and Justice Social Work may serve the final part of a custodial sentence under the scheme. They remain subject to licence conditions and a nightly curfew, and can be recalled to prison if they breach them.
Festival posts draw criticism
Crampsie returned to social media after her release, posting pictures from Coloursfest, a dance music festival held on August 15 and 16. Her Instagram image, taken beside the Braehead Waterfront, showed her in a leather-look khaki halterneck top and hotpants, with beige suede boots.
It was her first Instagram post since sentencing. On TikTok, she posted footage of herself dancing to Drop the Pressure, after resuming video posts around a week earlier. The clip was her first TikTok post since April 22, days before sentencing.
She was pictured at the festival despite being tagged and under a nightly curfew.
Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Stephen Kerr called it a "shocking example of the SNP's soft-touch justice system in action".
"The public will be outraged that this drug dealer was free to do what she wants after serving a fraction of the sentence she was given," he said, claiming she had benefited from a weakening of the justice system.
Sheriff Graeme Watson accepted that Crampsie had been "naive and potentially taken advantage of" by a former partner involved in drugs. He said she had a lesser degree of culpability and that there had been a power imbalance in the relationship, but described her conduct as "reckless".
Crampsie pleaded guilty in March to being concerned in the supply of a controlled drug.
Picture courtesy of Daily Mall
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19 August 2026
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