SINGAPORE - An electrician was jailed for 10 weeks on Tuesday (June 14) for threatening to distribute videos of his lover having sex with him and stealing $6,000 from her bank account.

Tong Seng Chai, 31, a Malaysian, admitted two charges each of criminal intimidation and theft and had four other theft charges taken into consideration.

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 a hotel at Changi Road on Aug 24 to discuss what they could do when they ended up having sex and he recorded a video of them on his mobile.

Later that day, a dispute arose and he asked 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 listen to him. Before they left the hotel, he asked her to hand over her OCBC and POSB ATM cards.

The next day, he went to her place at Opera Estate on the pretext of returning her bank cards and another dispute followed 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.

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 that 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 that he was charged with only 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.