The law in Singapore found it hard to swallow what the man did, and to his peril he cannot digest his crime either and must cool his heels in jail.

The man, a 25-year-old Malaysian electrician, used his mobile phone to take up-skirt video of a woman and swallowed the memory card.

Koo Kiat Boon has been jailed for three months for insulting the modesty of a 28-year-old woman and destroying the evidence.

Investigations showed that Koo took an up-skirt video of the woman standing in front of him on board a bus in the city Sep 3 this year, Xinhua reported citing the prosecutors.

Another commuter saw what he was doing and grabbed his hand. Koo smashed his phone repeatedly against the floor, hoping to damage it to conceal the evidence of his crime. He removed the memory card from the phone, which was bent in half with the back exposed, and placed it inside his mouth.

The bus driver honked at police officers on duty for help and Koo was arrested later.

Koo’s lawyer said he had committed the offences impulsively in a moment of folly.

District Judge Hamidah said destroying evidence to avoid prosecution was far more serious than insulting the modesty of a woman. Koo could have been jailed for up to one year and fined for insulting modesty, and up to two years and fined for destroying an electronic record.