Family seek return of the prodigal waiter
to claim £1 million legacy

Times Online 31/07/2006

An Italian who left Sardinia 20 years ago to start a new life in Britain as a waiter has been left a legacy that would make him a millionaire — but lawyers cannot find him to tell him the news.

Angelo Giuseppe Piroddi, who would now be 46, left his home village of Barisardo in the province of Ogliastra, on the eastern coast of Sardinia, as a young man to seek his fortune in Britain.

Residents said that he had fallen out with his well-to-do family, declaring that he would make his own way in the world.

He told his parents that he had found work in South London washing dishes but then disappeared. Lawyers said that after the death of his father he wrote “one or two letters” to his mother, Anselma Chiai, but warned her: “Don’t try to look for me”. The last-known letter was written in 1992.

When Signora Chiai died eight years ago at the age of 66 she left an estate valued at €1.5 million (£1 million), with her son as the only beneficiary. Villagers said that she had “fallen out badly” with her five sisters and had “specifically and categorically” excluded them from her legacy, as well as her mother, who is now dead.

The aunts have applied to a court in Lanusei, the provincial capital, to have the will overturned on the grounds that Signor Piroddi has never come forward to claim the legacy “and must be presumed dead”.

Giancarlo Piroddi (no relation), the lawyer entrusted by Signora Chiai to handle her will, told The Times that reports that the inheritance amounted to €2.5 million were exaggerated. “But we are certainly talking about a lot of money,” he said.

He said that Signor Piroddi’s parents had made their money in France — where their son was born — before returning to their Sardinian village “far wealthier than when they left”. This newfound wealth had caused family tensions that added to Signor Piroddi’s decision to leave Sardinia.

The lawyer said that the legacy was largely tied up in property, including the “substantial” family home, which had been divided into three rented flats, and “some valuable land which can be built on”.

He said that Signor Piroddi’s mother had tried repeatedly to find her son, writing to the police and contacting the British authorities, “all to no avail”.

La Nuova Sardegna, the local paper, said that Signor Piroddi “perhaps owns an Italian restaurant somewhere in Britain by now . . . Or he may have travelled the world, in which case he could be anywhere from New Zealand to South Africa.”

The lawyer said that he had set up an e-mail address, help.angelopiroddi@email.it, in the hope that anyone who thought that they knew the missing man would get in touch.

“For me this is a matter of principle,” he said. “I am prepared to spend my own money if necessary to track him down. I want to carry out the last wishes of his late mother at all costs. It is a moral obligation.”