Woman who robbed banks and got plastic surgery to escape has been caught after 25 years

A woman who robbed banks and got plastic surgery to escape has now been caught after 25 years, authorities in China have confirmed.

Former bank clerk Chen Yile – a pseudonym used by authorities – has been charged with corruption and fraud after being arrested last month.

Prosecutors in the city of Yueqing confirmed the charges in a WeChat post this week, saying: “For 25 years, investigators never gave up on arresting Chen.”

The Yueqing People’s Procuratorate said Chen confessed to all her crimes and expressed remorse when she was caught, explaining how it had worked with other government departments to finally track her down - not revealing how they managed to do so.

Yueqing People’s Procuratorate

In 1997, Chen was working as a clerk at the Yueqing City branch of China Construction Bank when she discovered there was a flaw in the bank’s system.

This flaw, she realised, would allow her to edit the amount of money in an account before withdrawing the cash.

Chen, who was 26 at the time, asked to be transferred to one of the bank’s nearby branches after hearing that it was suffering from staff shortage.

Knowing that the branch would be closed at the weekends, on 12 April that year she creeped into the empty bank to carry out her plan.

Entered new figures into her bank accounts, she was able to add 5.66million yuan (£673,000/$835,000) to her funds – proceeding to make her way around the city banks with a suitcase to withdraw 3.98 million yuan (£473,474/$587,000) in cash.

She then visited a clinic to have plastic surgery, although it is not known exactly what procedures she had.

Ingvar Björk/Alamy Stock Photo

After stopping off at her parents’ home - revealing what had happened, but ignoring her father’s advice to surrender to the police – she went on to build an entirely new life in a different province, assuming a new identity, remarrying (and ghosting her previous husband) and having a daughter.

The local justice department said her father reported her to authorities, but technology at the time wasn’t enough to find her.

Over the course of the next 25 years, she became a successful entrepreneur after founding her own cleaning supplies company.

But after being caught, she is facing charges of corruption, identity fraud, and getting remarried without terminating her previous marriage.