A foreign couple was caught stealing designer suitcases to order - from an airport baggage carousel in Bangkok.

Canadian national Tze Yeung Li, 35, and partner Luo Jieying, 21, were arrested after a US holidaymaker complained that her luxury Rimowa cases - worth around $5,000 - were missing.

Staff at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok checked CCTV and noticed the couple targeting the three silver cases and one purple case.

The American female confirmed they were her items and the two were traced and arrested as they waited to board a flight to Hong Kong on Saturday (November 3) afternoon.

Cops raided their hotel and found more stolen designer suitcases. The pair later confessed that targeted expensive luggage to sell at a cut-price back in China, where customers would make demands for certain brands.

Airport boss Kittipong Kittikachorn said: ''Staff were ordered to investigate after receiving the report of the missing suitcases and the victim confirmed that the bags on CCTV belonged to her. I ordered all the forces of the Suvarnabhumi Airport police, the Tourist Police and Immigration Officers to find the suspects. They were ordered to be tracked until they returned to the airport for their return trip and they were arrested.''

Cops pounced on Li, a Canadian citizen, and Jieying, from mainland China, on Saturday afternoon. They initially denied the crime, threatening to invoke their respective embassies, but later confessed. They said the case contents were just a ''by-product'' and the goal was to steal expensive bags.