Just minutes after dropping off his wife and son, a self-employed man went to park his car and then molested a 34-year-old woman while on the way back to meet his family for lunch.

Gary Tan Kum Weng, 49, was fined $4,000 yesterday after admitting that he had outraged the woman's modesty in Plaza Singapura shopping centre at around 1pm on Dec 10 last year.

An unrelated mischief charge, in which he caused damage worth $400 by scratching another motorist's car door on Jan 5 , was taken into consideration during sentencing. The court heard that Tan used his left hand to touch the buttock of the woman while he walked past her on his way to a restaurant on the ground floor of Plaza Singapura.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Amanda Chong said the act was captured on camera. Closed circuit television footage showed him eyeing his victim before he deliberately walked towards her to commit the offence.

DPP Chong said: "She immediately turned around and saw the accused walking away from her. She alerted her boyfriend and detained the accused. The police were later summoned and the accused was placed under arrest for an offence of outrage of modesty."

Yesterday, Tan's lawyer, Mr Gino Hardial Singh, pleaded for his client to be given a fine not exceeding $3,000. He told District Judge Jasvender Kaur that Tan had committed the offence in a moment of folly.

Mr Singh added: "The accused's actions were not premeditated and were purely (committed) on the spur of the moment when he acted out of character."

For outraging the woman's modesty, Tan could have been jailed for up to two years and fined or caned.