A South Korean cleaner will miss out on a fortune after finding a stash of gold in a rubbish bin.

According to The Korea Times, the cleaner found seven gold bars – worth around 350 million won (£240,000 or $330,000) – whilst emptying a rubbish bin at Incheon International Airport on 26 April.

Each bar weighs 1kg/2.2lbs and were individually wrapped in newspapers. Police suspect that their original owner threw them away in a hurry because they risked being caught, although as yet there is no proof the gold was connected to criminal activity.

The unnamed cleaner was thought to have been able to make a substantial claim on the gold thanks to South Korea’s ‘Finders Keepers’ law, which says the finder could claim between five and 20% of the gold’s total price (a maximum of 70m won, or £48,000/$65,000) if the gold remained unclaimed for six months.

However, the law doesn’t apply to employees on company property, and the airport issued a statement that the cleaner was “working as airport staff and it is a part of the cleaners’ job to find lost things”.