The name of Lepuiai Allen Mayer is,again, on the District Court calendar, charged with crimes that he has had to answer to in the past and had been convicted of.
In the latest case, he is accused of collecting payment for vehicles that didn’t belong to him from an unsuspecting customer, who believed that he was getting a good deal from the defendant. According to court information, the vehicle that Lepuiai received a down payment for, was a rental car.
Mayer is charged, in the latest case, with one count of embezzlement and one count of stealing.
It’s alleged that he rented 6 vehicles from Tuanaitau Rentals and after one week, he had not returned any of the vehicles or made payment towards the $4,000 bill.
After the owner reported Mayer to police and he was contacted, Mayer said that he would return all the vehicles. This was on November 11.
The next day, Mayer informed police that he had turned in all the rentals except for a red Chevy Silverado—valued at $20,000.
On November 17, police received a call from the rental car owner saying that Mayer had paid $1,500, but had still not returned the Chevy Silverado. The owner also told police that she met a few people who asked about vehicles they had bought from Mayer, but which the owner had no knowledge of. The owner provided proof of ownership for the rentals to the buyers.
Court filings cite that one of the victims who was allegedly duped by Mayer was a reverend elder, is a member of the same golf club that the defendant belongs to, Taumafai Golf Club.
Its alleged on October 13, Mayer offered to sell a 2018 Toyota 4Runner to the Faifeau.
The reverend elder told police, two days later, that Mayer approached him and asked for money for his wife and family—as they were having problems using their Territorial Bank of American Samoa ATM card to withdraw money in Hawaii. The Faifeau said, he gave the defendant $1,000, which Mayer said was down payment.
On October 17, the Faifeau met with Mayer at McDonalds in Tafuna and gave him $14,000 as payment for the vehicle. The next day, Mayer turned up at the CCCAS Kananafou main office with the 2018 Toyota 4Runner. According to the Faifeau, the vehicle was dirty and smelly, with no sign that it had been cleaned up as the defendant had promised.
A month later, on November 12, the day after police had contacted Mayer about returning the rental cars he had taken out without any payment, Mayer turned up at the Faifeau’s home and demanded the return of the vehicle that he had sold him; so that all the paperwork for the vehicle title could be settled.
The Faifeau said, Mayer gave him an SUV Hyundai sports car to use. But later that day, Mayer arrived at the Faifeau’s home with a Chinese woman and asked that the Hyundai SUV be returned. The court affidavits doesn’t make it clear, but it’s believed that the two cars were rentals that the defendant had been using.
Mayer is being held on bail of $50,000.
There have been at least 4 previous cases where the defendant has faced similar charges, using the same modus operandi.
