A Singapore permanent resident, who represented Malaysia at swimming in various South-east Asian (SEA) Games over the last decade, was sentenced on Tuesday to eight weeks' jail for defaulting on his national service (NS) obligations.

Malaysian Lim Ching Hwang, 24, left Singapore in July 2015 and failed to report for his enlistment in November that year.

He returned almost three years later in June 2018 and enlisted in April 2019.

On Tuesday, Lim pleaded guilty to two charges under the Enlistment Act, with another charge taken into consideration during sentencing by District Judge Ronald Gwee.

A search shows that Lim swam for the Malaysian team in the SEA Games in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017.

He came to Singapore to study at the Singapore Sports School in 2010. He was granted permanent residency status on March 4, 2014.

In May 2014, he received a notice to register for NS but was also offered a scholarship by a private entity to pursue university studies in the United States from September that year.

Lim was later granted deferment from NS to pursue diploma studies at Republic Polytechnic. But he did not complete his studies and left the country in July 2014.

His family tried to apply for deferment for him to pursue his university studies but were unsuccessful. They continued to apply for deferment in late 2014 and 2015, but did not produce the required bond for an exit permit to be issued to him.

In February 2015, the authorities informed Lim's father that his son was to undergo medical screening in preparation for his enlistment.

Lim later returned to Singapore on June 2, 2015.

Deputy Public Prosecutor R. Arvindren said Lim had complied with his medical screening because he was worried that he would not be able to enter Singapore for the 2015 SEA Games due to his Enlistment Act offences.

But he returned to the US on July 7 that year, and continued to apply for deferment from NS.

He told his family that he wanted to renounce his permanent residency status as he was unhappy that he was not granted deferment.

He later failed to report for his enlistment in November 2015.

Lim eventually returned to Singapore in June 2018 after completing his university studies. He enlisted in April of 2019 and completed his NS on Feb 2 this year.

His sentence has been deferred to Feb 23.

Lim's case brings the number of NS defaulters to 17 since the High Court set out the sentencing framework for such defaulters in 2017.