Saffron and rosewater were key ingredients for the much-loved Iranian sweets that came out of the Candoo bakery and dessert shop in Melbourne's east.

Key points: Seyyed Farshchi and Naghmeh Mostafei have been committed for trial on slavery-related offences

Seyyed Farshchi and Naghmeh Mostafei have been committed for trial on slavery-related offences The husband and wife ran two Iranian dessert stores in Box Hill and Lalor

The husband and wife ran two Iranian dessert stores in Box Hill and Lalor Defence lawyers said the complainant at the centre of the case had been paid some money

But in the basement of the Box Hill shop, a committal hearing in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court this month heard, prescription drugs were also on the shelves for workers, who alleged they were given the drugs by their doctor boss in order to work long hours to make the delicacies.

During Persian New Year and Ramadan, the hours were relentless.

Former employees told the court prescription opioids like tramadol and Suboxone helped them get through the pain of sore backs and necks. Opium helped them relax.

"We were very busy. We used to take it [drugs] to be able to work," specialist confectionary baker Mohsen Moghadaspour told the court last week.

He was one of 18 witnesses to give evidence during a committal hearing for doctor Seyyed Farshchi and his wife Naghmeh Mostafei, who have been committed to stand trial on slavery-related offences.

The couple ran the Candoo bakery and another store in Lalor, where they employed asylum seekers from Iran, like Mr Moghadaspour, who the court heard were often underpaid.

Dr Farshchi was "admired, respected and revered" in Melbourne's Iranian community, the court had heard. ( Facebook )

"Working up to 36 or 40 hours without sleeping would not be possible without being drunk or high," Mr Moghadaspour said in a statement lodged with the court.

Mr Moghadaspour worked alongside the complainant at the centre of this case, an Iranian man who arrived in Australia in 2013 after boarding a boat in Indonesia.

He cannot be identified because of a court suppression order.

The court heard the worker at the centre of the case was blackmailed into working at the bakery. ( Facebook: Candoo Confectionery )

The man alleges he was blackmailed into working at the bakery — doing labouring and cleaning — as well as at the home of Dr Farshchi and Ms Mostafei, where he mowed the lawn and washed the doctor's car.

Court documents state the man said he was not allowed to use his phone and was not given meal breaks.

"We might throw up because of the pressure of the work or the amount of work … " court documents state the man told police.

On one occasion the man said he was threatened there would be "a bag over his head and [he would be] thrown in the ocean by other Iranians", Magistrate Luisa Bazzani said in her summary as she committed the couple for trial.

The man had told police he was told he would "face death in Iran if he was returned there for having converted to Christianity", Magistrate Bazzani said.

Workers were particularly busy during Persian New Year and Ramadan, the court heard. ( Facebook: Candoo Confectionery )

The man was a Muslim until he arrived in Australia.

Dr Farshchi was charged with one count of conducting a business using forced labour and one count of causing a man to "enter into and remain in forced labour".

Ms Mostafei is charged with aiding and abetting him.

"He [Dr Farshchi] told me clearly, I have money I have power, I have influence, I know people and connections in the Department of Immigration," the man said in a transcript of a police interview released by the court.

The asylum seeker worked at Candoo from early 2015 after responding to a job advertisement on a Facebook page known as Under the Melbourne Skies.

Defence questions 'uncorroborated' claims

Dr Farshchi's lawyer, Stewart Bayles, told the court there were credibility and reliability issues with the complainant at the centre of the case and that Magistrate Bazzani should not rely "entirely on the evidence of [the man]".

Mr Bayles told the court the man's claims were "fundamentally uncorroborated".

Dr Farshchi leaves the Melbourne Magistrates' Court during the committal hearing. ( ABC News: Karen Percy )

During the committal proceeding, defence lawyers pointed to the man's relationship with a former business partner of Dr Farshchi's who left after a dispute over money and the running of the business.

Mr Bayles pointed to the man's drug use over a long period and that whatever drugs might have been prescribed by Dr Farshchi, the man's use of drugs "went far in excess of that".

But prosecutor Nicholas Robinson QC argued the while man might have been "a man who smoked opium, was paid cash and didn't report it and used tramadol as a recreational drug … it doesn't mean he wasn't subject to the threat".

The court heard several employees approached Dr Farshchi for prescription drugs.

The court heard he was not paid for the first three months, because he was training.

After that he was offered $10 an hour — well below the minimum wage at the time — but was only paid infrequently, the court heard.

The court was told that at one stage Dr Farshchi owed him $12,000.

Camera footage used to control employees, court heard

The court heard Dr Farshchi installed CCTV cameras in the bakery to monitor his employees and threatened to show the footage of them smoking opium to immigration officials.

Other employees testified that Dr Farshchi had given them "made-up" payslips to help them get loans for cars or houses.

During cross examination by lawyers for Dr Farshchi and Ms Mostafei, a number of witnesses agreed they had been paid some money.

When it came to the complainant and his wife, defence lawyers said the man must have been paid because the Centrelink payments would not have covered the man's rent and other expenses.

Mr Farshchi also offered to help with the complainant's visa, the court heard.

"It was always his way of convincing me to stay," the complainant said during his police interview.

A number of workers, like the complainant, were also drawing Centrelink payments without declaring their income from the bakery, the court heard.

"He said Farshchi had threatened to report him to Centrelink and saying your bridging visa will get cancelled," the man's migration agent Ahmad Ghaffari said in a statement filed with the court.

Man's wife says she was not paid for housework

The man's wife was forced to work at the couple's home, where Ms Mostafei made her look after their infant, as well as cook and clean, the court heard.

Dr Farshchi's wife Naghmeh Mostafei is charged with aiding and abetting her husband. ( ABC News: Karen Percy )

"I left my country because I was looking for peace — I was thinking to have a peaceful life. Then I came and face all this hardship and made me to feel worst. It really affected my health," the man's wife said in a recorded interview with police.

She had a miscarriage in 2017 as a result of bad health, the court heard.

Ms Mostafei's lawyers argued she had reached out to support the man's wife who was depressed and in need of the company of other Iranians.

While the wife said she was not paid for her work, she told the court Ms Mostafei would occasionally pay for clothing, and the family was able to take food home with them.

A trial date is yet to be set down for the couple.