An electrician threatened to upload a video of his lover having sex with him and made a similar threat the next day to get her to hand over two ATM bank cards.

Yesterday, Tong Seng Chai, 31, a Malaysian, was jailed 10 weeks for criminal intimidation and theft of $6,000. He pleaded guilty to four of eight charges.

A District Court heard that Tong and the woman, a 25-year-old manicurist, were in a relationship until it hit a rough patch in August last year.

They went to Hotel 81 in Changi Road on Aug 24 to talk it over and ended up having sex. He recorded a video of them on his cellphone.

Later that day, they argued and he told her to hand over her mobile phones, which she did.

He then threatened to show the sex videos he had recorded to others if she did not do as he said. Later, he got her to hand over her OCBC and POSB ATM cards.

The next day, he went to her home on the pretext of returning her bank cards. Another dispute ensued, with Tong again threatening to show videos and photos of them having sex to other people.

That evening, Tong used her POSB card to make three withdrawals of $1,000 each. He withdrew another $3,000 the next day.

She reported him to the police on Aug 27, stating that he had threatened her and had withdrawn $6,000 from her POSB account without her consent.

Tong's lawyer said the victim had allowed his client to use her ATM card when they were in a relationship.

District Judge Low Wee Ping told Tong he could have been charged with extortion, which carries a minimum of two years and 12 strokes of the cane, and he should be thankful he was charged only with criminal intimidation.

Tong could have been jailed for up to two years and fined for criminal intimidation. For theft, the maximum is three years' jail and a fine.