A Middlesbrough beautician who is accused of bringing 43kg of cocaine into the US said she thought she was carrying cash not drugs in her suitcases.

Kimberly Hall is currently under house arrest in Chicago awaiting trial after she was stopped at the Chicago O'Hare International Airport in August.

The 28-year-old has since appeared on ITV’s This Morning show, explaining how two British men, whom she met while on holiday in Portugal, offered her a free trip to Mexico.

She told the programme: “I just had a lot going on at home at the time, I needed a bit of breathing space. It was a breath of fresh air to go there.”

Once in Mexico, she met the men again and one of them explained he would like her to fly £250,000 home for him as he had lost his passport, was in trouble, and needed to get the cash to his family.

Hall, who has since been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, said: “It just seemed really legit and straightforward.”

Asked by presenter Dermot O’Leary if she did not feel “slightly suspicious”, given the amount of money involved, she said: “At the time I was not thinking along them lines.

“I was thinking it was just money. I certainly was not thinking it was committing a crime.”

Hall said she missed two flights to the UK with the two suitcases the men gave her but then took a flight to Manchester via Chicago.

Officials at O’Hare airport stopped her and when they opened her suitcases and found suspicious items, she said they asked: “What are you trying to bring in?”.

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She told the show: “I said ‘I don’t know’, I was just confused.”

Hall said she would not name the two men who paid for her trip to Mexico out of fear of reprisals.

She is next due in court in January.