6:00am Monday 13th July 2009
By Duncan Eaton
THROUGHOUT his life he scrimped and saved every penny.
Alan Twigg, who lived a very modest life in the Southampton suburb of Bassett, certainly lived up to that old adage of if you look after the pennies the pounds take care of themselves.
His pennywise ways even extended to counting the number of sheets in toilet rolls to pinpoint which supermarket provided most value for money.
By living well within his means the 68 year-old retired insurance investigator amassed more than £500,000.
Mr Twigg, described as a lifelong bachelor, died at the end of last year and it seemed that there was no one to benefit from his well saved fortune.
Indeed the huge sum was in danger of slipping into the coffers of the Crown.
But then those intrepid TV heir hunters stepped in and traced his two cousins who will now share a surprise windfall.
A brother and sister, one lives in Norfolk and the other in Surrey. They are both believed to be in their late sixties.
It was a tip off from a member of the public in Southampton that set the TV detectives on the trail of the missing relatives.
Millions of viewers will today see how they tracked them down in the BBC TV programme Heir Hunters.
A programme spokesman said: "Mr Twigg had amassed his wealth over the course of many years scrimping and saving every penny his whole life to the point that he counted the number of sheets in toilet rolls to ascertain which supermarket provided most value for money.
"He was a very frugal gentleman."
Mr Twigg owned a £200,000 house which is understood to have been in Ethelbert Avenue, Southampton as well as more than £300,000 in shares and bank accounts.
The Treasury receives about £18m from intestate estates which have not been claimed. According to the Ministry of Justice's Judicial and Court Statistics in 2007 - the latest figures released - some 76,000 people died without leaving a will. It is estimated that 60 to 70 per cent of the population does not have a valid will.
Heir Hunters will be screened on BBC1 today at 9.15am.
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