SINGAPORE — By concealing his mobile phone in a cardboard box, Sholehudin Shariffuddin managed to film his female and male subordinates changing their clothes in the employees’ changing room.

He had his eye on a 21-year-old staff member in particular as he was physically attracted to her. In all the videos he took, the victims’ faces were clearly visible through their reflection in the changing room mirror.

The 29-year-old man, who was then the cinema service manager at an outlet of cinema chain Golden Village, was sentenced to 20 weeks’ jail on Monday (Feb 10).

He pleaded guilty in a district court to six charges of insulting a woman’s modesty. Another six charges, including committing public nuisance which related to the filming of the men, were taken into consideration for sentencing.

The court heard that Sholehudin used several rolls of receipt paper to prop up his mobile in an improvised cardboard box, then aligned the device with a hole in the box to secretly film those in the company changing room. Only employees could access it.

He first did this on July 30, 2018, taking a video of the 21-year-old woman in her underwear.

Subsequently, he filmed two more cinema service crew members — aged 45 and 26 — with the same modus operandi.

According to court documents, he got away with this on four occasions before being caught on Dec 16, 2018. A male employee grew suspicious after noticing the box on the ground, which was not usually there, and told another manager about it.

The other manager discovered the setup and called the police.

Later, Sholehudin admitted that he owned the mobile phone and that he had intended to take videos of his subordinates and colleagues changing clothes.

He would watch the videos after returning home and masturbate to them due to “a strong sexual urge”, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Gabriel Lim told the court.

DPP Lim argued that Sholehudin had displayed a “high degree of premeditation” and that the victims’ faces could be seen in the videos. Nevertheless, he acknowledged that the victims were not filmed fully nude.

Sholehudin, who did not have a lawyer, had nothing to say in mitigation.

He could have been jailed for up to a year, fined or both for each charge of insulting a woman’s modesty.

In response to queries from TODAY, a Golden Village (GV) spokesperson said that Sholehudin's employment had been terminated as soon as his misconduct was discovered.

"At GV, we take the conduct of our staff seriously and we do not tolerate any acts of misconduct. The offender will be terminated immediately and will be reported to the relevant authorities."