Simon Cowell's Apartment Trashed by Drunken Contestants

British X Factor contestants have jeopardized their future careers by damaging Simon Cowell’s rented luxury villa in Spain.

The American Idol and X Factor music mogul was left furious after the hopefuls caused thousands of dollars worth of damage and drank his imported beer and vintage champagne.

Simon Cowell is staying in a 20-bedroom, $22,000 a day, rented villa in Marbella, Spain, where he is ‘mentoring’ this year’s X Factor hopefuls.

Problems started on Sunday night when contestants raided his drinks bar and finished his champagne and imported Japanese Sapporo beer. Feeling in the party mood they swam in the sea and then stumbled back to their rooms, damaging a £5,000 Persian rug. Antiques and designer furniture was covered in sand and stained by sea water.

Cowell was woken up by the partying into the early hours. He said yesterday: “Yes they did wake me up. Any damage will have to be paid out of their first royalty cheque if they make it, to teach them a lesson.”

Mr. Cowell also spoke about controversies hitting the show including his decision to ban auto tune.

The first episode of the new series featured a number of auditions where singers voices were adjusted to sound better than they actually were. Producers were accused of regularly using the technology but Cowell insisted it was only used in the ‘extreme conditions’ of the auditions where contestants brought poor quality backing tracks and the crowd noise could drown them out.

Cowell confirmed the technology would not be used again, and added: “And to say we were using it to cheat is nonsense.”