Man with sexual fetish for wallets jailed 13 months

A man who had a sexual obsession with leather wallets was back in court again. This time, Low Ji Qing, 48, not only faced theft charges but also charges for insulting modesty as well as dishonest misappropriation.

The court heard that he breached his three-year probation order by re-offending between March and November last year. He was first given probation in May 2011 on four theft charges.

When he re-offended in the later part of 2011, the court gave him a chance in January last year by ordering that he continue with his probation but during this time he committed six offences between March and November last year.

On Feb 1 this year, he admitted to three of them: theft of a Chanel wallet worth $1,000, taking two upskirt photographs of a 30-year-old woman and dishonestly misappropriating an adult EZ-Link card. The court called for a progress report and adjourned sentencing.But while he was out on bail pending sentencing, he stole again by taking the wallets of two shoppers at IKEA on March 1. These two charges were among five that were taken into consideration.

Low, who had been sentenced to 10 years' preventive detention before for theft, found out he was suffering from fetishism, a psychiatric disorder, in 1996.

An economics graduate from an Australian university, Low was jailed a total of 13 months on Friday on nine charges including those that he had been given probation.

The court revoked his probation order and backdated his sentence to his remand on March 7.

Join ST's WhatsApp Channel and get the latest news and must-reads.