That came as the hearing for Vivien Chuang Wai-man, 48, the authority's chief manager for infection, emergency, and contingency, and her husband, Chiu Ming-yu, a 47-year-old orthopedist with the authority, continued yesterday before magistrate Frances Leung Nga-yan.

Leung adjourned the hearing to January 17 and 18 and granted bail to the couple, who are accused of stealing foodstuffs worth over HK$1,600 in April.

They have pleaded not guilty to one count of theft of a watermelon, a melon, two puddings, two boxes of blueberries, three packs of sashimi and sushi, and a bag of prepacked chicken worth HK$1,632.80 from an Aeon store in Whampoa Garden on April 23.

Chung Siu-wai, who made the arrest and took down their statements, told the court that he and three auxiliary police officers arrived at the security room of Aeon store around 4 pm and checked surveillance camera footage after a guard, Chan Hang-kui - who testified on the first day of the trial - told him the pair didn't pay for some of the foodstuffs.

Chung then brought the doctors upstairs to a platform on the basement floor, and arrested after hearing Chiu and Chuang say, under caution, "I stole these foodstuffs for myself" and "I stole these 10 items for myself," respectively.

Chung added that he had asked the pair to turn off their phones on the way to the Hung Hom divisional police station so as to prevent them from talking to each other.

The interview was then done in the interview room at the station, with the couple signing statements and other documents after expressing their understanding of the rights of a detainee, Chung said.

But lawyers for Chuang and Chiu said the couple made the confession after Chung had misled and intimidated them, and urged the court to cancel the confessions.

The lawyers said Chung had told the pair: "you were caught not scanning some items, and that's theft, I have to bring you back to the police station," and "there is no need to hire a lawyer, it's theft no matter you have an intention or not, it makes no difference so don't waste money."

Chung disagreed.

When asked why the arrests were not made in the security room, and Chung had written in his notebook that the pair were arrested outside a primary school, the policeman said he thought the room was too crowded and that he only relied on his Google Map app for the arrests' location.

Chung also came under fire for not showing them their statements, which had numerous misspellings.

The officer admitted that he showed poor skills in jotting down their statements, but said the two neither requested to check the statement, nor sought help from family members and lawyers.