She would have passed herself off as a lawyer, providing assistance in civil cases especially. Only that in the end some clients had found themselves having to pay out large sums of money without receiving any compensation.
Yesterday the case ended with the sentencing of Gabriella Addari, 50 years old, originally from Simaxis, to two years and eight months in addition to a 20 thousand euro fine plus a provisional sum for the civil parties (respectively 5 thousand, 3 thousand and 1000 euro, in addition to costs and publication of the sentence in the Unione Sarda).
Addari, assisted by Massimiliano Ravenna, was accused of practicing law without a license and of embezzlement. As reconstructed by prosecutors Andrea Chelo and Daniela Muntoni in the previous hearing, some people had turned to Gabriella Addari's professional office for assistance in various circumstances: among them a woman from Silì (civil party with the lawyer Giovanni Cau) in a lawsuit against the doctors who had performed a surgical operation in a hospital on the Peninsula.
The woman claimed to have paid Gabriella Addari over 10 thousand euros without obtaining the compensation she had hoped for. According to the prosecution, the 50-year-old also asked for 8 thousand euros from the coroner (civil party with the lawyers Marina Caria and Patrizio Rovelli) to silence one of the parties involved. The Oristano Bar Association with the then president Antonello Spada was also a civil party. The prosecutor had asked for a 3-year sentence, the defense had argued that it was a purely civil matter , because «Gabriella Addari did not actually carry out the duties of a lawyer» and that there was not even misappropriation because «all the money was paid».
Judge Cristiana Argiolas, however, accepted the prosecution's thesis, the conviction was reached but the defense announced an appeal.
