A mother is under criminal investigation in Russia for allegedly selling her newborn baby on the black market for £250, police say.

The woman, 30, named Chechena, has three school age children and reportedly needed the money “to buy sweets and clothes for the kids”.

The cleaner was detained after childcare officials, who knew she had been pregnant, became suspicious over the whereabouts of her baby.

She told officers she met the buyers – a childless couple – through acquaintances, according to police.

Chechena then allegedly used the woman buyer’s passport when she registered for a scan and later to enter the maternity hospital in April.

After the baby was born in Krasnoyarsk, the midwife is said to have handed the child to the woman’s husband, believing the man to be Chechena’s spouse.

Source: The Mirror