A POLICE officer accused of shoplifting said it was an "honest mistake" and his traumatic home life led to the "misunderstanding," a court has heard.

Richard Pendlebury, an officer working in the custody suite at Bury Police Station, said he believed the £24 worth of women's items that he put into a bag had been what his partner was returning to the Asda store in Pilsworth.

In an ongoing trial at Preston Crown Court, the jury heard that the 42 year old, who has 20 years of policing experience, was on emergency leave from work at the time of the alleged theft in September 2014 and that two of his four children were "very ill".

During a police interview, Pendlebury said his partner Zoe Wilkinson, aged 30, had been finding it difficult to cope and they were under an amount of stress.

They had been shopping at the Pilsworth Road store when Pendlebury claimed that Wilkinson suffered a panic attack and requested to leave the store.

Upon leaving the store, Pendlebury was stopped by security guard Naseem Sher before flashing his police badge at him and allegedly assaulting him.

Pendlebury denies theft and assault, and one count of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice between September 18 2014 and April 9 2015.

He also denies two charges of intending to pervert the course of justice between the dates of December 27 2014 and January 1 2015 — as does Wilkinson.

In a transcript of the police interview read to the court, Pendlebury said: "I honestly thought they were Zoe's clothes so I put the items in.

"I had seen her buy these things so when I was looking in the trolley I thought she must not like them or they were the wrong size."

He added that when Mr Sher showed him the sandwich packaging, he offered to pay for it, having "forgot", but said the guard lunged at his partner, grabbing her arm.

The Crown alleges that the couple then conspired with Wilkinson's hairdresser, Natalie Leicester, aged 32, to provide a false account to police.

Miss Leicester said she as provided with a typed version of events while at the couple's home which she handed to police.

Miss Leicester said Pendlebury was privy to the events, adding that the three of them "discussed it numerous times".

Proceeding.