SINGAPORE - A recalcitrant thief with a fetish for women's underwear was found with more than 500 pieces of women's clothes in his possession when police arrested him in June.

The clothes included nightwear and undergarments.

Odd-job labourer Seah Chong Hong, 61, who has multiple theft convictions, was sent back to jail on Monday (Oct 29) for 18 months. He pleaded guilty to three counts of theft involving mainly women's undergarments worth $279.

Four other theft charges and one count of illegally possessing more than 500 items of women's clothing were taken into consideration during sentencing.

The court heard that Seah saw a woman's laundry hanging out to dry at a common corridor on the second storey of a block of flats in Sims Avenue around 7am on Sept 8 last year.

A neighbour, who saw him taking four of the woman's undergarments, alerted the police, and he was arrested. He was later released on bail but absconded and became uncontactable.

The court heard that he continued stealing women's undergarments at places such as Redhill Close and Jalan Klinik near Havelock Road earlier this year.

The police were also alerted following these incidents, and officers arrested Seah in Redhill Lane this June.

More than 500 pieces of women's clothing were then found in his possession.

Defence lawyer Nicholas Ngoh from Optimus Chambers pleaded to District Judge Kenneth Yap for leniency.

The lawyer said an Institute of Mental Health report dated June 27 this year stated that Seah has borderline intelligence and fetishism for women's undergarments.

Mr Ngoh told the court that Seah stole them on impulse and added: "He could not explain why he did it except that he felt a certain sense of elation after stealing the undergarments. He was visibly embarrassed when recounting the incidents."

For each count of theft, Seah could have been jailed for up to three years and fined.