SHE was jailed nine months in August last year for theft and was hoping for a second chance on Tuesday in her appeal against the sentence.

But the hearing never came before Justice V.K. Rajah.

It turned out that Zhang Jing, 40, was arrested just over a week ago on New Year's Eve for stealing sushi at a supermarket.

Zhang, a housewife who is suffering from kleptomania, had been seeking treatment from a psychiatrist and a psychologist regularly and was on medication.

On Tuesday, her lawyer, Mr R. Nandakumar, told the court that his client might be having a relapse.

Zhang, an architect by training, was arrested in February last year after she stole three watches, worth over $500, from a shop in Scotts Road.

That was not her first attempt.

Between 1993 and 2006, Zhang had gone into prison no less than three times, with the longest stint being a nine-month jail term in 2002.

In 1996, she started to seek pyschiatric help and was diagnosed as suffering from kleptomania, a psychiatric disorder that renders the sufferer unable to resist the impulse to steal.

She was also suffering from depression.

When she was jailed nine months last year, her lawyer urged the court then to place her on probation because the previous jail terms had not 'curbed her impulse' to steal.

Any further custodial sentence was unlikely to have the effect of rehabilitation, said the lawyer.

However, District Judge Eddy Tham turned down her plea, saying: 'It is painfully obvious... that the accused had failed to restrain her impulses in continuing to re-offend despite knwoing the dire consequences of her actions.'

In adjouring the case until Mar 4, Justice Rajah on Tuesday allowed both the defence and the prosecution to find out more about Zhang's latest arrest.

He also urged them to 'bear in mind' Zhang's mental illness.

'She is an architect by training. She is well-placed and there is no need for her to pilfer some sushi, except for the manifestation of her illness,' he said.

Zhang could have been jailed up to seven years.