Cash spent on overseas shopping trips has soared this Christmas sales season to more than $4 million in the last four weekends.

The figure is up from last year's figure of $3,295,369 for the same period, and the numbers of people caught trying to evade duty has also risen to 95 from 86 last year.

Low prices and greater choice are rated as reasons for spending abroad according to shoppers who spoke to The Royal Gazette.

One shopper returned from Philadelphia last weekend after spending around $1,500 in a 19-hour shopping marathon.

The woman - who asked not to be named - said: "We got there on Thursday and found everything was shut for Thanksgiving. We had dinner, then we found a K-Mart was open and spent two hours in there.

"Friday and Saturday was all day shopping, you can go to nine or ten o'clock at night. I spent easily $1,500 but some people are dropping $3,000 to $4,000 at a time just in that weekend."

She said her and her three companions did nothing else during their trip but spend.

"We never went into Philadelphia itself. We did nothing else apart from shopping. I bought toiletries in bulk for the whole year."

Cheap prices and massive choice made America unbeatable said the woman while the proximity of Philadelphia airport to the mall made shopping very easy.

She said savings far outweighed the $206 airfare and the $20 a night she paid for a hotel room shared with three shopping companions.

Her husband was not keen to come after a previous exhausting shopping trip to New York.

"He said he would never come again. It's a woman thing."

However she was not short on company. "The place was packed with Bermudians. One woman has been going for 20 years."

Her sister spent $3,000 during the same trip, on CD players, DVDs and clothes.

She told The Royal Gazette: "I am not paying $100 for a pair of shoes in Bermuda. In Philly I paid $80 for three pairs of shoes. And they were good quality shoes too."

She also bought bath room fittings and toiletries because she said there was more choice and prices were cheaper than at home.

Although she added: "It is getting more expensive in America."

She said her husband approved of the shopping.

"As long as you don't go and spend $10,000. It's not a problem," he said. "I can only take it for three days solid. It is quite exhausting. But women love it."

And she said she declared everything at Customs. She said: "I don't want to get stopped. I know people in Customs.

"If you get pulled over they will find it, confiscate it and you will have to pay a huge fine and still pay the duty."