A Tigerair passenger who stole a laptop bag from another passenger onboard a flight was jailed for nine months on Thursday. Li Xiangyang, 44, a businessman from China, is the second man this week to have been given the stiffest sentence so far for such an offence.

He admitted to stealing the laptop bag containing a laptop and credit cards from Mr Peh Boon Chong when the Tigerair flight was enroute from Guangzhou to Singapore on July 5.

Mr Peh, 43, a Singaporean, had placed the bag in the overhead compartment above his seat. Later, when he tried to retrieve his bag, he found it missing and informed a flight stewardess. The flight attendant managed to find it in the overhead compartment nine rows behind the victim's seat. She asked around and a passenger told her that he saw, Li, who sat next to him, step out and take the victim's laptop bag and move towards the last row of the flight.

On Tuesday, China national Yue Liangfu, 32, was sentenced to nine months' jail for a similar offence on board a SilkAir flight last month. During Yue's sentencing, Senior District Judge See Kee Oon said that statistics showed an alarming rise in the number of reported cases. Li could have been jailed for up to three years and/or fined.