It was 8.40pm and the doctor on duty had left when a 28-year-old woman and her husband went to a clinic in Yishun.

A male staff nurse, pretending to be the doctor, carried out inappropriate tests, including an unnecessary electrocardiogram (ECG), during which he unclasped her bra and touched her chest.

She put a stop to it and told her 33-year-old husband.

Yesterday, Muhammad Ruzaini Johari, 33, pleaded guilty to one charge of molestation in the State Court.

He will return to court today to give his mitigation plea and be sentenced. He can be jailed for up to two years and fined or caned for outraging a woman's modesty.

The crime took place at the clinic on May 11 last year. According to the law, the couple cannot be named to protect the woman's identity.

Ruzaini was alone finishing off some administrative tasks when the couple, who work as components assemblers, arrived as the woman was having a headache, earache and sore throat.

As the clinic's lights were still on, they thought it was open. Ruzaini asked her to go into the consultation room, where he sat in the doctor's chair. After some brief examinations using the stethoscope and blood pressure monitor, he asked her to lie down, with her face up.

He lifted her blouse and began to press her stomach area, down to near the groin. Although she felt embarrassed, she did not protest as she thought Ruzaini was a doctor.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Marshall Lim told the court that Ruzaini then took an ECG device, which is used to measure a person's heart activity. The test was not necessary but he was "thrilled by the prospect of being able to get (the woman) to expose her breasts to him", said DPP Lim.

He lifted her blouse and unclasped her bra to place the ECG electrodes on her breasts, wrists and ankles.

She got very uncomfortable, confronted him, removed the electrodes, got dressed and left the room. She burst into tears and told her husband what had happened, and he made a police report.