Eugene Lim Zhen Wey, 19, took upskirt shots of two sisters with his camera phone at a shopping centre on Oct 20 last year.

He pleaded guilty to the two charges of intruding into the privacy of the two women aged 24 and 27 at Ngee Ann City at Orchard Road and was given four weeks' jail on each charge.

The sentences are to run concurrently.

A magistrate's court heard that Lim was taking an escalator together with operations manager Loh Bee Choon, 32, and the sisters when Mr Loh, who was standing behind, saw Lim with his right leg a step higher and holding his cellphone with its lens pointing upwards and focusing beneath the victims' skirts.

On reaching the next level, Mr Loh stopped Lim and took away his mobile phone. He told the victims what happened.

The two victims found an upskirt photograph of each of them in his phone.

Pleading for a fine only, Lim told District Judge Shaiffudin Saruwan that this was his first offence. He said he was deeply sorry and regretted what he had done.

'My mother did not know about this incident. I decided to keep this from her due to her ailing health,' he added.

But the police prosecutor said the a jail sentence was the norm for such offences, and there was a danger of the footage being circulated.

Lim could have been jailed for up to one year or fined or both on each charge.