SINGAPORE: A 28-year-old man was sentenced to five months' jail on Tuesday (Mar 19) for stealing a stingray from a fish farm and threatening to leak his ex-girlfriend's nude photographs.

The man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his ex-girlfriend, pleaded guilty to one charge of theft and another of criminal intimidation, with a third charge taken into consideration.



The court heard that he had gone to GML Aquatics, a fish farm in Lim Chu Kang, on the afternoon of Aug 23, 2017, to collect a stingray.

He had placed a deposit of S$50 for the creature. The owner of the fish farm, 48-year-old Seah Khee Boon, had told him to contact an employee when he arrived at the farm so that the S$250 stingray could be retrieved.

However, when the man arrived at the farm that day, he did not contact the employee like he was told to.

Instead, he took a stingray out of a tank and placed it inside a plastic bag, which he put in his car.



He then went back to the fish farm and called the farm employee, who gave him the stingray he had paid a deposit for.

He paid the balance of S$200 for this stingray and left the fish farm with both stingrays.

About four hours later, the employee who had spoken to the man realised that a stingray was missing.

Mr Seah realised that the customer had taken the missing stingray, which was also priced at S$250, after reviewing closed-circuit television footage.

He confronted the man and asked him to pay for the stingray, as he felt that the creature did not have a "high" chance of survival since it had been taken out of the tank and deprived of oxygen, Deputy Public Prosecutor Genevieve Pang said.

The man did not pay for the stingray, instead he returned to the farm and left the fish at the gate.

Later that night, Mr Seah lodged a police report saying that a stingray had been stolen from his fish farm.

The man admitted later that he stole the stingray "out of greed", the prosecution said. He then paid the farm owner the price of the stingray.

MAN THREATENED TO POST EX-GIRLFRIEND'S NUDES ONLINE

About nine months later, the man threatened to post his ex-girlfriend's nude photos on social media.

He had been in a relationship with the 22-year-old Malaysian woman for about a year. They were intimate with each other and shared nude photos with each other.

However, they agreed to delete all naked photos they had of each other in October 2017.

When the woman told the man that she wanted to break up with him in May 2018, as they were constantly quarrelling, the man tried to make her stay.

She ignored him, and he sent her photos that were edited to give her the impression that she was at least partially nude in the pictures.

Afraid that her ex-boyfriend still had her nude photos, the woman agreed to meet him on May 28, 2018. However, she instead went to the police to report the matter.