The Taipei District Court yesterday heard a lawsuit by an interior designer against the son of former National Police Admin-istration chief Ding Yuan-chin (丁原進).
The designer, Ko Wen-cheng (柯文正), sued Ding Chao-chi (丁肇基) accusing the latter of failing to pay more than NT$4 million in interior design and decoration fees for his work at the Dings' controversial Vision City (世界山莊) villa.
Ding did not appear in court nor was he represented by an attorney at the hearing.
The dispute came to light earlier this month and led to allegations that the former police force head is living a life of luxury well beyond his means.
Ding's attorney, Chiani Lee (李采霓), said the designer failed to accomplish the agreed-upon tasks or win the Dings' approval for the work that was completed.
"The work had many defects, and my client twice asked them to do it properly, but they failed to meet these demands," Lee said.
Despite the flaws in the work completed, she said, Ding has paid NT$3.24 million of the originally agreed-upon NT$4 million.
"But they changed the project without consulting us and inflated the price to NT$8 million," Lee said.
But Ko told a different story, saying every piece of the work was carried out according to the contract.
"I asked them to approve the work, but they did not do so and just moved in and changed the lock," Ko said.
Taipei County Councilor Chin Chieh-shou (金介壽) appeared outside the court to support Ko. He said many business people offered to provide free furniture to Ding Yuan-jinn when he was in office.
"But they withdrew their offers when Ding stepped down. And that's why the Dings have failed to pay the money," he said.
The Control Yuan last Tuesday started an investigation into Ding's financial affairs and the circumstances surrounding the purchase of his residences.
Ding Yuan-chin was also charged last week by Taipei City Councilors with owing NT$24 million in fines and taxes for gifts he says he used to purchase an upscale villa in the Wenshan District of Taipei City.
Ding is the former head of the National Police Administration and previous chief of the Taipei City Police Headquarters.
Ding claimed on Tuesday that, to buy a house in Vision City worth NT$38 million, he gathered NT$6 million from his only son and borrowed NT$20 million from one of his "good friends."
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