Lady Deborah Holmes, the widow of broadcaster Sir Paul Holmes, took her Range Rover in for a service to Village European in Havelock North in June. What followed was what she has described as a “nightmare” - an engine ruined, a staff member sacked, and both the company and Holmes staring down the barrel of bills into the thousands. Mitchell Hageman reports on what has become a saga of distrust and anger. 

It started with a phone call from Village European owner Jason Lee. It would be the first of many. 

Lee was ringing Lady Deborah Holmes to say something had gone wrong during the regular service of her Range Rover. The engine was ruined. 

This is what Lee says happened on June 8. 

“As we were road testing it, it came out, lost all its oil, seized and buggered the engine,” Lee said. 

“It was an error by one of our staff, he’s since been subsequently sacked.” 

Lady Deborah Holmes, wife of the late broadcaster Paul Holmes, with the engine that was fitted into her Range Rover by Village European. Photo / Paul Taylor 

But Holmes is not convinced that’s the full story. She believes her engine (which is still sitting in Village European’s offices) is fine. 

She’s laid a police complaint alleging Lee has stolen it and replaced it with an old engine from a wrecker, for his personal gain. 

Lee says he’s sick of the dispute - especially the repeated texts from Holmes that he claims have verged towards “abuse”. He claims the saga has now left him thousands of dollars out of pocket. 

“I’ve said if she wants to do a postmortem with the engine, she’s more than welcome to come and pick this up and take it to an independent assessor,” he said. 

“We just have to have it here now for insurance purposes for the assessors. It’s sitting here, we haven’t stolen it and there’s nothing untoward.” 

The series of unfortunate events that led to a $600 taxi ride 

This is a complex dispute that has spiralled over several months. 

At one point Holmes ended up broken down on the side of the Napier-Taupō Rd in Lee’s personal vehicle. 

But things started amicably enough. 

When told the engine had seized, Holmes first asked Lee if she needed to contact her insurance company. 

He said she didn’t because it was fully covered under his liability insurance. 

The next matter of business was getting a new engine installed. It’s here that the timeline becomes muddy. 

Texts of correspondence seen by Hawke’s Bay Today sent on July 6, a month after it went in for the service, show Lee telling Holmes an engine that had done 40,000km was coming from Australia. 

This is then followed by a text where Lee claims to have confused which Deborah he was talking to. 

Lady Deborah Holmes pictured with her husband Sir Paul Holmes. Photo / Paul Taylor 

A text from Lee to Holmes on August 30 said “an engine” was at the shop. An engine invoice date from the wreckers reads September 26. 

Holmes claims Lee’s timings don’t match up. 

Lee said while he did say some parts would be coming from overseas, and there were times when sourcing an overseas engine was an option, the actual replacement engine was sourced via a system used by many mechanics. 

“There’s a system which most wreckers in NZ have called ‘Parts Trader’. We list it on ‘Parts Trader’ and wreckers submit tenders for it,” Lee said. 

“We sent it out first and got no tenders back. We then went to overseas suppliers to see if we could get parts from there and potentially the UK, but the significant cost of freight and time delay killed that.” 

After trying to resubmit more than three times, Lee said he managed to find one engine said to have done 65,000km. He said he gave this information to the insurance company who said it was fine to go ahead. 

Lee told Hawke’s Bay Today the engine was fitted with “no problem at all” and at that point, he says it was discovered the Range Rover’s turbo was also damaged and needed to be replaced. 

He said the insurance company was told about the new turbo and that was sourced as well. 

Then, another spanner in the works. 

“The crux of everything comes down to how many kilometres that engine had done that we fitted,” Lee said. 

“We were told the engine had done 65,000km.” 

But that was not the case. Holmes discovered on the Carjam website that the engine had done above 191,000km and confronted Lee about it. 

Jason Lee, left, owner of Village European in Havelock North, has been locked in a dispute with Lady Deborah Holmes since June. Photo / Paul Taylor 

Lee says he should’ve “smelled a rat” when he sourced the engine. 

“Normally when you get an invoice the kilometres will be recorded. In this case it wasn’t,” Lee said. 

“We can verify it off the VIN number, but we don’t know exactly what the history of the engine is of it.” 

Lee said he was working with his insurer and an independent assessor to remedy the situation on his end. 

“Cost is not an issue in the whole process. What happens with an insurance claim is we pay for it upfront, we submit the claim, and the insurance company reimburses us at cost.” 

Still without her car, Holmes asked on September 27 how progress was going as she had to go to Auckland for a family emergency. 

Lady Deborah Holmes, pictured at Mana Lodge in 2013 at Poukawa, near Hastings. 

Lee offered her a courtesy car to use for the trip. Holmes claims the car Lee gave her was not fit for purpose to drive that far and was not registered. 

“The vehicle had done 350,000km and was leaking oil everywhere and the boot had fallen apart,” she said. 

Lee then swapped the courtesy car with his own vehicle on September 29, but Holmes claimed it had a large crack in the windscreen and no warrant of fitness. 

“I had no choice but to drive it as needed to get to Auckland.” 

The vehicle ended up breaking down 57 kilometres up the Napier-Taupō highway. She couldn’t reach Lee so called a taxi to take her back to Havelock North. The fare was $600. 

Lee claimed both cars were warranted, and said he believed Holmes had driven his car while the coolant light was on, without remedying it, causing it to break down. 

“I haven’t even mentioned to her the costs involved in fixing my vehicle,” Lee said of the breakdown. 

“Not many people would go out of their way to give a customer their own car.” 

Tyre trouble 

Lee took the Range Rover in for a warrant on October 12, four months after the service, which it then failed due to mismatched tyres, which had to be replaced at a cost of $1552 to Holmes. 

Holmes then accused Lee of stealing her tyres. 

Lee said the ongoing work had prevented him from taking the car to get the warrant. 

“It had been sitting here for about four months while parts were sourced. The Wof had lapsed over that time, so we went and got it done then,” he said. 

“At that point, she accuses us of stealing her tyres. We’re not a tyre shop and don’t even have the facility to do tyres. 

“What has happened is that at some stage of her car’s life, the car has had a flat tyre, and some tyre shop has fitted something that looked right but had a different load rating.” 

Holmes, for her part, is not backing down. As well as a police complaint against Lee over the engine, she has also laid complaints with the Insurance Ombudsman and her insurer FMG. 

“My insurance company FMG have immediately rejected my claim saying ‘we don’t cover vehicles for engine failure during service’,” Holmes said. 

“I’m really disappointed that my insurance company has done nothing to support me and has chosen the easy narrative to get out of paying my claim. It makes you wonder if you can trust anyone.” 

She said because the case was with the Ombudsman, it now sits with the complaints department at FMG. 

“We understand this is an unfortunate situation for Mrs Holmes, however, FMG’s motor vehicle policy does not extend to cover engine failure that is connected with service and repair,” FMG head of claims Steve Beale said. 

The Ombudsman and the police could not comment due to privacy reasons. 

A war of words 

Holmes said she was disappointed and embarrassed that she put her trust in Lee, and wanted to warn others about her experience. 

“I’m an honest person and I just assume other people are too. I try to support locals where I can, especially after Covid and the cyclone.” 

Lee said he was in no way trying to deceive Holmes. 

“She’s claiming we’ve done this as a means to make money and rip people off. We haven’t made any money off the parts, the amount of lost labour is staggering and we’re losing money on that. We also have to pay the $1000 excess,” he said. 

“I’m about $8000-$9000 out of pocket and have had to sack an employee as well.” 

Lee said he felt it was becoming impossible to have a reasonable conversation with Holmes after nearly six months of dispute. 

“I can’t actually talk to her; she just fires off these abusive text messages.” 

Lee has suggested a mediator come on board to settle the issues faced by the pair. 

Holmes said she had her lawyer pursuing the insurance company and that the situation may have to go the Disputes Tribunal. 

Holmes said she believed, however, that a ruling in her favour wouldn’t be a resolution as “the guy has no money and won’t pay anyway”. 

“So, I’m now left with a worthless car that is barely driveable.” 

Mitchell Hageman joined Hawke’s Bay Today in late January. From his Napier base, he writes regularly on social issues, arts and culture, and the community.