SINGAPORE - A computer programmer was jailed for eight weeks on Tuesday for secretly filming women in fitting rooms and on shopping mall escalators.

Jack Ng Kok Foong, 36, pleaded guilty to five of nine charges of intruding the privacy of women between April and May last year.

He was caught when a man in a cubicle next to his at the Factorie store at ION Orchard spotted a video camera lens protruding from a bag.

The customer alerted the store manager who sought the help of a security officer.

When Ng came out, the security officer wanted to check his bag but he refused and ran. After a short chase, he was detained and police were called.

Investigations showed that Ng was inside one of the fitting rooms at Factorie at ION that evening when he used a Sony Steadyshot video camera to film a woman trying on clothes in a fitting room.

Earlier on, he had filmed another woman in a fitting room in Cotton On at Wisma Atria and took an upskirt video on an escalator at Basement 4 of ION Orchard.

He committed two similar offences at Cotton On at Bugis Junction and an escalator at Pasir Ris White Sands sometime between April and May last year.

Ng, who had a previous conviction for causing hurt, would upload the videos to his laptop.

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