Widow of £4.7m ice cream king and a very frosty fight with ex-wife over his fortune
THE former wife of an Italian ice cream tycoon is suing his widow over his £4.75million fortune after his entire inheritance was left to his second spouse.
Ernesto ‘Ernie’ Colicci, 66, died with coronavirus in 2021 having spent nearly 40 years scooping out a London-based ice cream empire with first wife Josephine Colicci.
The couple’s children, Rob, 39, and Rosanna, 36, both played roles in the booming enterprise, with their son going on to marry a soap star, former Hollyoaks actress Scarlett Bowman.
But Mr and Mrs Colicci divorced in 2011 and in 2014 the tycoon married his second wife, Russian-born Nora Grinberg, London’s High Court was told.
‘Called new wife his Russian maid’
Mr Colicci had arrived in the UK from Italy in 1982 ‘with a dream to sell ice cream’ and went on to create a business at 35 sites across London’s parks, operating cafes, boutique restaurants and vintage ice cream trucks.
When he died, his April 2017 will left his entire £4.75million fortune to Mrs Grinberg and their infant daughter, with a letter telling his offspring from his first marriage that he had given them enough cash during his lifetime.
But now Mrs Colicci is facing off across a courtroom with her exhusband’s widow – whom the court heard she disparagingly referred to as his ‘Russian maid’ – arguing that his £1.6million stake in the ice cream business should rightfully go to her children.
Mrs Colicci, 59, insists that his 40 per cent stake in ECSI Ltd was ring-fenced to be passed to Rob and Rosanna under an agreement they drew up in 2016.
But on his death, he in fact left his estate to Mrs Grinberg and Mrs Colicci is now suing for a judge’s declaration that Mrs Grinberg holds the shares on trust for her children.
The siblings each already own a 10 per cent stake in the family company and Rob is a director, with Mrs Colicci owning the remaining 40 per cent.
Mrs Grinberg is being sued at the High Court as the executor of her husband’s estate in a clash which has already racked up around £150,000 in lawyers’ fees on the side of the Colicci family.
Penelope Reed, KC – for Mrs Colicci and her children – said the case partly turns around the effect of a 2016 deed hammered out between Mrs Colicci, her ex-husband and their children, by which the parents ‘each covenanted to make a will’ leaving their shares to Rob and Rosanna.
Mrs Colicci told the court that, when her ex got together with Ms Grinberg, she had initially viewed her as a friend and even attended her wedding to Mr Colicci.
She said she and her ex agreed in 2016 that their children would inherit their shares when they died to safeguard their offspring’s futures and the Colicci empire. She also claimed Mr Colicci and his second bride ‘almost broke up’ after he suggested she sign a pre-nup deal before their wedding, which she refused.
Ms Grinberg’s barrister, Angela Walsh, argued that the terms of the 2016 agreement had been ‘wiped out’ by a subsequent shareholders’ agreement struck in 2017, which ‘superseded previous agreements’ and which distributed 10 per cent of the parents’ shares to Rob and Rosanna.
She accepted his shares should stay within the Colicci family, but said that, as they are part of the estate left to Ms Grinberg by her husband, Rob and Rosanna should pay a fair price for them. Ms Walsh told Judge Mark Anderson, KC, that Ms Grinberg, who claims Mr Colicci never insisted on a pre-nup, will face ‘hardship’ if she loses her late husband’s stake. Following the birth of their baby, now six, Mr Colicci was determined to ‘provide for his new wife and child’.
He even left behind a ‘letter of wishes’, explaining: ‘I love Roberto and Rosanna very much and my will is no reflection on how I feel about them. I have provided both of them with significant... funds in their lifetimes...’
The judge is expected to deliver his ruling at a later date.