A Defence Science and Technology Agency scholar who stole bras from his neighbour and university hostels was given a 12-month mandatory treatment order on Thursday.

Research engineer Jonathan Peh Song Wee, 26, was found to have 228 bras at his Ang Mo Kio home - all of which were suspected to have been stolen or fraudulently obtained.

He had admitted to five charges - criminal trespass, theft and fraudulent possession. Another eight were taken into consideration during sentencing.

A Community Court heard that Peh, who graduated from Nanyang Technological University in June last year, stole his neighbour's two sports bras worth $110 at the common corridor at a block of flats in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4 last August.

On Oct 17, he stole a $50 bra from a 21-year-old student at the National University of Singapore (NUS) at Kent Ridge Crescent.

A month later, he unlawfully entered Block A Temasek Hall, NUS, and stole a bra hanging on the rack along the common corridor.

The hall manager made a report on Nov 17 saying that he had managed to get the identity card of the intruder, who escaped after being detained for a while.

Police arrested Peh the next day at his home and found his horde of brassieres. When questioned, he failed to account satisfactorily as to how he got them.

Peh had a fetish for female underwear, particularly sports bras, since he was a first and second-year aerospace engineering student at NTU but it was not detected until he was diagnosed by an Institute of Mental Health psychiatrist last year.

He will continue to receive psychotherapy with a psychologist during his MTO. He could have been jailed for up to three years and/or fined for theft and criminal trespass.

The maximum penalty for fraudulent possession is a $3,000 fine and one year's jail.