SINGAPORE - A former Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) major was jailed for five weeks on Wednesday (May 17) for twice taking upskirt videos of his colleague at the SCDF headquarters.

Poh Siok Peng, 45, had admitted to intruding into the privacy of the 26-year-old woman at Ubi Avenue 4 on March 4 and 9 last year.

In sentencing him, District Judge Kessler Soh agreed that there was a degree of premeditation and a custodial sentence was necessary.

He said the father of two's abuse of trust was an aggravating factor.

But he accepted the "relatively low" degree of intrusion, given that the victim was wearing safety pants.

The court heard that sometime in January to February last year, the victim noticed that Poh frequented her office cubicle to chat with her instead of the usual tea time and lunch time.

He would sit in front of her in an awkward position - he was constantly looking and bending down while chatting with her as though reaching out for something under her desk.

Instead of standing by her desk, he would always sit in front of her, especially when she was wearing a dress or skirt to work.

Once, he was chatting with her when she saw a light flash from under her desk and realised that he was taking upskirt photographs of her using his mobile phone.

She informed her superior on March 3, and they carried out a "sting" operation.

This resulted in him being caught.

The victim lodged a report on March 9 last year.

Poh admitted to taking upskirt videos of the victim using his previous mobile phones which he had since sold. He could not remember how many videos he had taken of her.

Poh, represented by Mr Tan Hee Joek, could have been jailed for up to one year and/or fined on each charge.