On the evening of Feb. 9, the second evening of the Lunar New Year Festival, a man surnamed Lee and members of his family went to eat at a well-known roast duck restaurant in the eastern part of Taipei. Lee’s niece, also surnamed Lee, claimed that she had swallowed some foreign object in her food. The restaurant assigned an employee to go with her to the Cathay General Hospital for a check-up, but the hospital did not find any obvious injury. Ms. Lee then went back to the restaurant and demanded an apology from the owners. With both sides refusing to concede, Mr. Lee suddenly took out a name card bearing the name and title of an investigator called Chang Shih-tai and said to the restaurant owner, whose surname is Ting, “When the Lunar New Year holidays are over, some departments, including Fire Department safety inspectors and the Construction Management Office, will come looking for you.”
Seeking to patch up the quarrel, besides giving the Lees a red envelope containing NT$1,200, the restaurant owners covered the NT$7,800 cost of their meal and gave them a pot of “Buddha jumps over the wall” soup worth NT$1,200.
Under questioning, Mr. Lee argued that he had not pretended to be an investigator. However, prosecutors, referring to a statement made by Huang Chien-hao, a police officer who went to the scene to handle the dispute, confirmed that Lee had indeed presented himself as an investigator. In the opinion of the judge, Mr. Lee did not use the proper means to handle the dispute and committed the offense of unauthorized use of the title of a public official under the Criminal Code. The judge ordered Lee to pay a fine of NT$3,000.
Photo: Huang Hsu-lei, Liberty Times
照片:自由時報記者黃旭磊
(Liberty Times, translated by Julian Clegg)
二月九日,即農曆大年初二晚間,李姓男子和家人到台北市東區知名烤鴨餐廳吃飯,李男的外甥女李女稱吃下的食物中有異物,餐廳派員工陪同到國泰醫院檢查,但未發現明顯傷勢,李女返回餐廳要求店家道歉。雙方爭執不休之際,李男突然拿出印有調查員「張世泰」的名片,向餐廳丁姓老闆聲稱:「過完年後會有消防安檢和建管處等單位來找你!」
店家為息事寧人,除包了一千兩百元紅包,還招待當天餐費七千八百元,另免費送價值一千兩百元的「佛跳牆」。
庭訊時,李男辯稱沒有冒用調查員身分,不過檢察官參考到場處理糾紛的員警黃建豪證詞,確認李男假冒調查員。法官認為李男不用正途處理爭端,已違反刑法「冒用公務員官銜罪」,處罰金三千元。
(自由時報記者項程鎮)
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