SINGAPORE - In 2010, he was spared a prison term and sentenced to two years' probation for taking upskirt videos in lifts.

On Monday (Feb 26), Gary Huang Kun Jie, 33, was back in court and jailed for similar offences.

Huang had, in 2009, taken more than 90 video clips of women with his mobile phone camera over five days. He pleaded guilty to five charges and was given probation in July 2010 after he was diagnosed with paraphilia, an abnormal sexual behaviour or impulse characterised by intense sexual fantasies and urges that keep coming back.

On Monday, the assistant engineer was jailed for 12 weeks after pleading guilty to three of eight charges of taking upskirt videos of females in Yishun last July and August. The other five charges were taken into consideration in sentencing.

The court heard that on June 6 last year, police received a call with a text message of a suspected upskirt video offender at Block 879, Yishun Street 81, the previous day.

Police identified Huang as the culprit, extracting eight upskirt videos of unknown women from his phone.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Jane Lim said Huang admitted that he would usually take videos of 20 to 30-year-old women wearing short skirts. His modus operandi was to take lifts with his victims when they were alone and distracted.

"When he spots a female victim, he would enter the lift and press the button for a higher floor than her. Thereafter, he would walk behind the female victim and bend down to take a video of her underskirt when she is focusing on her handphone and cannot see what he is doing," said the DPP.

He would also target women while they were walking to the lift, and, sometimes, those wearing shorts at MRT escalators.

Huang's lawyer Josephus Tan from Invictus Law Corporation told the court that his client had suffered a relapse and was undergoing treatment.

The lawyer added that, in further support of Huang's rehabilitation, his employer was willing to retain him.

District Judge Adam Nakhoda, in passing sentence, said there were a number of aggravating factors in the case.

He noted that the offences were committed over a period of time and in the confines of a lift.

Huang could have been jailed for up to one year and/or fined on each charge of insulting the modesty of a woman.