An electrical wireman who threatened to post nude photos of 17 women online if they did not have sex with him was jailed for 32 months on Thursday.

Mani Velmurugan, 28, an Indian national, had posed as a Caucasian to the women he met through an online live chat website called Badoo last year.

Using a photo of a Caucasian for his profile, he told some of them he was from England or Canada and introduced himself as Adam, Mark, Adam Mark or Mark Adam. His victims, aged between 21 and 39, hailed from a range of professions, such as clerk, manager and interior designer.

A district court heard on Thursday that he would send the women nude photographs purportedly of himself and tricked them into sending him their nude pictures and in some cases, things like their passport information.

He threatened to post their nude photographs online if they did not go to bed with him. Two had sex with him so as to delete their nude photographs and personal details from his mobile phone. But one of them, a 29-year-old, later found out that he still had her nude photographs and went to the police in August last year.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Sheryl Janet George highlighted several aggravating factors like the many victims and how Velmurugan had committed the offences under a false identity. He had also continued to threaten two of the victims.

Velmurugan , who is married with three children in India, could have been jailed for up to 10 years and/or fined on each charge.