‘Pregnant’ woman revealed to be carrying £30,000 worth of bank notes instead of baby bump

A woman pretended to be pregnant so she could smuggle 1.4 million New Taiwanese Dollars (£30,000) into Hong Kong from Taiwan.

Ms Chen was caught on March 7 at Taoyuan International Airport in Tapei as she prepared to board a flight, reports Huanqiu.com, an affiliation of the People’s Daily Online.

Ms Chen claimed she needed the money for shopping and was detained at customs pending further investigation.

Security staff at the airport approached Ms Chen who was pretending to be pregnant to get the money through.

She was allegedly trembling when she spoke to the guards who noticed she was wearing her clothes very loosely when boarding the plane. 

The security personnel took her to another room to be searched, where they discovered the hidden cash.

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Ms Chen was concealing 500 and 100 dollar notes down her trousers and under her jumper, totalling 1.4 million New Taiwanese Dollars (£30,000).

When they found the money, Ms Chen told the officers she was taking it into Hong Kong so she could go shopping.

Officers has taken her to the Taiwan Ministry of Finance and Customs Department in Taipei for further investigation.

It is unclear exactly how much money can be carried into Hong Kong without declaring it as it depends on the destination a traveller is coming from.

According to a South China Morning Post report, in July 2015, legislators rejected a government proposal to require arriving travellers to make a declaration if the money they carry in exceeds HK$120,000 (£10,000). 

The amount was deemed too low, particularly for visitors from mainland China. 

However, according to legislation in Taiwan, a maximum of 60,000 New Taiwanese Dollars (£1,300) can be taken out of the borders without declaration.