'Bonnie and Clyde'?*

It’s a classic “Bonnie and Clyde” story with a Samoan bite.

A white man named Grant Holland arrived in Samoa and claimed he was a man of God, a church minister.

He said he came to Samoa to help a troubled woman named Vaioleti Stowers who, at the time, was serving a jail term at Tafaigata Prison.

How was he going to help her? he was asked.

“Well, I will change her criminal mind and mend her evil ways,” he replied.

What followed though was perhaps quite unexpected.

Grant Holland and Vaioleti Stowers were soon to become partners in alleged crime, and from there they devised a scam aimed at profiting from selling cars they’d rented.

At the time, businessman and owner of Samoana Rentals, Leiataua James Arp, was obviously unaware that he was soon to become a victim of the scam.

And so was his sister Mulipola Louise Main who owns National Rentals.

The two of them rented six vehicles from their companies to Grant Holland who went ahead and sold them.

All the cars were rented under Grant Holland’s name except one which was rented under Vaioleti Stowers’ name.

Said Leiataua: “She didn’t come to the office. She called and one of boys delivered the car to the Police Station.

“She was at the Police Station and she put her partner’s name Grant Holland in the contract.

“That one was a Toyota Rav4 with the plate number R238.”

Leiataua explained that when the cars were not returned on time, they made enquiries and soon found that “they’d been sold to various individuals with their license plates replaced.”

Later when he met up with Grant Holland, he got a call from his sister telling him that “the Assistant Prison Commissioner, Tunaimatia Faiesea Lautala, was driving one of my cars, a Navarra.”

Leiataua said he then called the Assistant Prison Commissioner and asked him to come to where he and Grant Holland were, so that they could say “who is telling the truth and who is lying.”

When the Police Officer arrived, Leiataua said “the first thing I noticed was that the license plate had been replaced."

“I told him that by removing my license plate and replacing it was illegal,” Leiataua said. “That’s the Land Transportation Authority’s job.”

He also told him: “They’re supposed to record the new license plate he’d put on his vehicle and that was also illegal."

Leiataua said the Officer then “admitted that it was another vehicle’s license plate he’d removed which was when an argument between the officer and Grant Holland started.”

That was when he was told that some of the missing vehicles were at Tafaigata Prison.

That was when money talks started.

Leiataua said he told the others that “as far as the money is concerned that’s not my business."

“All I am concerned about are my vehicles and the money owed on their rent.”

And as the others were arguing about money he was listening.

“Tuanai asked Holland to give him back his $30,000 dollars but then Grant turned around and said: ‘No, you didn’t give me $30,000, you gave me only $10,000.’”

And as the two were continuing to argue about money, he asked when his vehicle would be returned, which was when “Assistant Prison Commissioner Tunaimatia” said “if someone could go with him to Tafaigata, drop him there and get my license plate and my vehicle, and I agreed.”

Leiataua said he arranged for the police officer to be taken to Tafaigata Prison, and asked Grant Holland to come with him to the Police Department to file a statement.

He said Grant Holland agreed.

“On the way over,” Leiataua said, “I spotted one of my vehicles, so I turned around and soon found out that (someone he knew) was driving it.” Leiataua said “she goes to Tafaigata regularly to teach Zumba to the prisoners.”

Anyway, Leiataua said she told him that even though “we bought this vehicle we know it was your rental and that she was going to bring it in.”

Later at the Police Department he filed a complaint.

Leiataua said at that point his sister “has recovered only one vehicle and two were still missing, and later we discovered that one of the vehicles was at Tafaigata, smashed or written off.”

Around that time he met with the Assistant Commissioner, and during “our conversation Tunai wanted to know the kinds of vehicles belonging to my sister that were missing."

“I described to him the Nissan Vista, and he said that was the vehicle they gave him as a gift, he gave it to his son, and the vehicle was returned.”

Leiataua said “the other vehicles owned by my sister’s company were subsequently recovered.

“Two of them are okay except that the rent on one of them has not been paid, but the third one is written off.”

The matter is presently being investigated by the Police.

* Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, also known as "Bonnie and Clyde" were American outlaws who went on a robbing spree in America in 1910.