The trial of a police officer accused of stealing computer games from HMV in Bristol while on duty continued yesterday.

Peter Cokell was allegedly seen on CCTV selecting two PlayStation 3 games on the evening of April 7 before smuggling them out of the HMV shop at The Mall, Cribbs Causeway, without setting the alarm off.

The 34-year-old, of St Francis Drive, Wick, whose job at the time was to stop shoplifters at The Mall, is on trial for theft before a district judge. He denies the charge.

Yesterday at Frome Magistrates' Court PC Shaun Oliver, who worked with PC Cokell, gave evidence to say what happened following the alleged event. He said that HMV's loss prevention officer at the time, Gary Sutton, had asked to see him the following morning.

"As a result of what I was told and shown I contacted my inspector. Mr Sutton had shown me the CCTV footage from the previous evening."

Later Mr Sutton asked PC Oliver to walk out of the store with a game beneath his stab vest as a test. "Gary selected a game and walked through the gate with it and activated the alarm," PC Oliver said.

"He came back in and I placed it under my stab vest and walked out with it because he asked me to. I then walked back in again – neither time did the alarm go off."

However, DS Paul Hunt, investigating the case, said that PC Oliver's stab vest was more modern than PC Cokell's vest and made from chain mail.

He said PC Cokell's stab vest was made from Kevlar and in a further test in August, the vest did not prevent the alarm sounding when games were placed beneath it. But DS Hunt added that a stock check by Mr Sutton resulted in a report saying that two games were unaccounted for.

At a previous hearing Mr Sutton told the court that at about 8.40pm on April 7, 20 minutes before the store was due to close, he noticed a uniformed officer in the store.

Mr Sutton said he recognised him as Cokell, whom he had known professionally for several years.

As the PC appeared to be acting "suspiciously", looking up at the CCTV camera, he kept watching.

He said he saw him select two games before walking to a redundant Virgin Media desk at the back of the store.

Mr Sutton said: "He placed the two games inside the cubby hole and just leaned on the edge of the desk. After a short while he appeared to be tucking the two items up his vest and inside his coat. He straightened his front and made his way out of the store."

Defence barrister Jonathan Heard has accused Mr Sutton of "setting up" Cokell and "fabricating" his alleged confession because he had apparently refused to give him a job reference.

The trial continues at Frome Magistrates' Court on November 5.