A property agent was jailed for four weeks on Wednesday for insulting a woman's modesty by taking a video of her undergarment.

Dave Teo, 32, pleaded guilty to intruding on the privacy of the 31-year-old woman by using his mobile phone to take an upskirt video.

The incident happened in a lift at an HDB block in Jalan Membina on Sept 23 last year.

The court heard that three people got into the lift that evening: Teo, the victim - who is in the customer service industry, and another woman, who alighted on the second floor.

Teo then took out his mobile phone, pointed it under the victim's skirt and began video recording.

The victim saw what he was doing in the reflection of the lift door and confronted Teo, who pretended nothing had happened and put his phone away.

She returned home and told her husband. They went looking for Teo and found him at the coffeeshop below the block.

Teo tried to flee but was detained with the help from passers-by. The victim called the police.

Teo's lawyer Ravinderpal Singh said his client, who is married with two young children, was feeling suicidal and depressed at the time. A psychiatric report stated that the Teo, a sole bread winner, had been feeling very stressed as he had not been getting much income from his property agent job for about three months. He also slept poorly.

The lawyer said Teo is still being treated at the Institute of Mental Health and receiving counselling regularly from counsellors and a church pastor.

The maximum penalty for insulting the modesty of a woman is one year's jail and a fine.