SINGAPORE — A 40-year-old man who indulged in indecent acts with a Secondary 2 student five years ago was yesterday jailed for 12 months.

At the time of the offence, Raymond Ong Imm Chuan was 34 and working as a project manager. He had met his then 13-year-old victim in December 2007 through a mutual female friend who was 17 at the time.

Ong and the victim exchanged phone numbers and started texting each other. He asked the girl for oral sex in the text messages and when she revealed her age, Ong pretended to be a 25-year-old.

Though she was unwilling to meet Ong initially, after some persuasion, the victim agreed to let him pick her up from school in January 2008.

Ong then drove her to his house at Block 649 Punggol Central, claiming he wished to chat with her. Instead, he made physical advances towards her.

Before she left, he gave her S$10 to take a taxi home.

The offence was discovered when the girl’s father checked her mobile phone and saw the messages. A psychiatric report determined that the victim was “rather simple minded” and functioned at the borderline range of intelligence.

Ong was also fined S$1,500 and banned from driving for three years for driving without a valid licence.

The court also noted that Ong was convicted on three counts of driving without a licence in December 2005 and fined S$2,400, and that these convictions had not been set aside.

Ong intends to appeal against yesterday’s sentence. CLAIRE HUANG