Couple face eviction from home after court fight with cannabis tycoon

Wedding organiser couple are facing eviction from their £7m farmhouse and fear being left ‘homeless’ after losing four-year court fight with multi-millionaire cannabis tycoon dubbed ‘Dr Pot’

• Alo Brake and her husband Andrew say they could become ‘totally homeless’
• The pair have been locked in a legal battle with Dr Geoffrey Guy for four years
• Dr Guy bought their farm in 2017 while they continued to run a wedding business
• But he evicted them after a row a year later and the couple took the case to court
• A High Court Judge has said they must leave the farm’s ‘jewel’ Axnoller House

A luxury wedding organiser and her husband fear being left ‘totally homeless’ after losing a four-year court fight with a multimillionaire medicinal cannabis tycoon nicknamed ‘Dr Pot’.

Alo Brake and husband Andrew transformed sprawling West Axnoller Farm in Dorset from a derelict site to a sought-after £7m wedding venue, where actor Sean Bean married his fifth wife, Ashley Moore.

But the financial crisis in 2008 sparked a downturn in their fortunes, resulting eventually in the farm being sold to a company run by cannabis entrepreneur Dr Geoffrey Guy, 57.

Nicknamed ‘Dr Pot’, Dr Guy made his fortune after founding GW pharmaceuticals, which is known for its multiple sclerosis treatment derived from the cannabis plant.

Initially, the Brakes continued to work for him in the wedding business after his 2017 purchase, living in the farm’s ‘jewel in the crown’ Axnoller House or in a nearby cottage when an event was taking place.

But they later fell out with the cannabis tycoon and in November 2018 were fired and told to get out of the house.

The row resulted in a mammoth court battle, racking up dozens of hearings before judges and ultimately resulting in the Brakes being ordered out of Axnoller House by the Court of Appeal last week.

Alo Brake and her husband Andrew arrive at the Court of Appeal in London during their four-year battle over the possession of Axnoller House

Lord Justice Arnold rejected an application to appeal an earlier decision of the High Court, leaving the couple facing eviction before the end of the month.

Addressing the judge after the ruling, Mrs Brake, 56, – a former City bond dealer – said she feared the decision would leave the family ‘totally homeless’ because their assets remain frozen due to the legal row and they will struggle to rent because they own a dog.

But for Dr Guy’s company, barrister Niraj Modha said the Brakes had effectively been ‘trespassing’ on the farm for more than three years, costing the tycoon about £320,000 in lost revenue.

Dr Geoffrey Guy, dubbed ‘Dr Pot’, bought the couple’s £7m wedding venue in 2017 and issued an eviction notice a year later

According to Judge Paul Matthews in a ruling in the battle earlier this year, Mrs Brake had bought the picturesque farm, near Beaminster, Dorset, in September 2004.

At the time it was derelict, but with the help of her husband, 57, she transformed it into a holiday letting business and high-class wedding venue, with adjoining horse ‘arena.’

However, the credit crunch of 2008 forced the couple into looking for outside investment, leading them to form a partnership with a businesswoman in 2010 and contribute the farm as their stake.

The partnership ultimately failed and the farm was in 2015 sold by receivers to another company, a corporate vehicle for Mrs Brake’s friend, The Hon Saffron Foster, daughter of the third Lord Vestey.

The farm was then sold again in July 2017, passing to Dr Guy’s company, The Chedington Court Estate Ltd, for more than £7 million.

Initially, Mrs Brake continued running the wedding and accommodation business, but the relationship between the parties ‘broke down’ and the Brakes were both sacked and told to leave in November 2018.

The couple claimed they should be allowed to live in Axnoller House, described as the ‘jewel in the crown’ of the property and they had been given assurances they would be allowed to stay

But they refused, claiming they had a right to stay there because Mr Brake was an agricultural tenant and relying on alleged promises that they would be allowed to stay on. 

In evidence, the couple said that Mrs Foster had bought the farm as a means to ensure they kept their home and made ‘assurances’ in 2015 they would not have to leave.

‘Saffron has told us that her main aim was to protect us and allow us to continue living as we always had done at the farm,’ said Mr Brake in his evidence. ‘I regard her as one of the most honourable people that I have met.’

The couple claimed that when the property was then sold to Dr Guy’s company in 2017, assurances had been made to the effect that he would not evict them for at least five years and not without paying enough compensation to allow them to find a new property.

At the High Court in February, Judge Matthews ruled that Mr Brake was not an agricultural tenant because the farmland he tended was simply a ‘stage set’ for the wedding business.

There had also never been an assurance that they could stay on, neither by Mrs Foster nor Dr Guy.

In buying the farm through her company, Mrs Foster had in fact been a ‘nominee’ for Mrs Brake, having effectively ‘lent her name’ for the purpose of the purchase, the judge found.

Negotiations for the sale to Dr Guy’s company had been conducted almost exclusively by Mrs Brake and the Brakes had taken about £3m from the proceeds of sale, he said.

‘In my judgment, taking into account not only these points but all the evidence, it is clear beyond doubt that the 2015 assurances were never given,’ he said.

‘For the avoidance of doubt, I make clear that this conclusion covers not only the house, but also the arena, and indeed the rest of the farm.’

During discussions about buying it, Dr Guy had simply been told that the couple sometimes stayed at Axnoller House when weddings were not taking place as a ‘perk’ of their employment.

The venue has hosted many weddings, including that of actor Sean Bean, pictured here on the day of marriage to wife Ashley

‘I find that there was no discussion of the Brakes being entitled to occupy Axnoller House or the arena,’ he continued.

‘An astute businessman such as Dr Guy would have noticed immediately if there had been.

‘I conclude as a fact that no such promise was ever made, whether on any particular occasion, or taking the relevant events together and looking at them as a whole.

‘Nor did Dr Guy do or say anything which could reasonably have created in the Brakes an expectation equivalent to such a promise.’

Instead, what happened was that Dr Guy had been content for the couple to continue to sometimes use the house and to keep their horses in the arena on a non-exclusive basis.

Appealing against the judge’s ruling last week, Mrs Brake – who represented the couple herself – argued that he had made several errors in deciding the legal argument in the case.

He had taken too narrow a definition of agriculture when deciding that Mr Brake was not an agricultural tenant of the farm, she claimed.

Additionally, there had been ‘procedural unfairness’ in the High Court trial which resulted in the finding that Mrs Foster had been acting as her ‘nominee’ when purchasing the farm in 2015.

Mrs Brake claimed at a previous court hearing that Dr Guy had threatened to kill her horses (pictured), something that was disputed by his lawyers

But giving judgment, Lord Justice Arnold said none of Mrs Brake’s arguments had any hope of overturning Judge Matthews’ decisions.

‘None of the individual grounds have a reasonable prospect of success,’ he said, rejecting their appeal application and allowing an eviction notice to take effect from April 21.

Mrs Brake said she feared the decision could leave them homeless, since their assets are frozen and the fact they have a dog puts them ‘at the back of the queue’ when looking for a rental property.

A dispute between the Brakes and Dr Guy’s company over possession of a cottage close to the farm, where the couple had stayed during events but is now in Chedington Court’s hands, is set to be decided by the Court of Appeal at a later date.

The couple claim they were wrongly evicted from the cottage and have been given permission to argue their case in a full appeal.

How ‘Dr Pot’ made his millions 

Dr Geoffrey Guy, perhaps slightly unfairly known as ‘Dr Pot’, has been at the forefront of medicinal cannabis in the UK for more than 20 years. 

He began his pharmaceutical career in the 1980s, working for a number of companies and doing research into plant ingredients that could help develop medicines.  

After setting up a number of successful drug firms, he founded GW Pharmaceuticals in 1998. 

It secured a Home Office licence to grow cannabis and since then it has developed numerous treatments involving the plant. 

These include a mouth spray called Sativex, which is used in the treatment of people who had multiple sclerosis (MS). It was the first cannabis-based medicine approved by any country. 

This was followed by Epidyolex, which was approved in the United States to help people with epilepsy deal with seizures. 

Dr Guy inspecting cannabis plants grown at a GW Pharmaceutical’s warehouse. He set up the company in 1998

The same drug was approved in Europe in 2019, and both Epidyolex and Sativex are available on the NHS.

The Cambridge-based firm reported annual sales of £385m in 2020. 

In February last year it was reported that the company was being sold to Irish rival Jazz Pharmaceuticals, adding to his fortune.

As one of the co-founders, Dr Guy’s holding meant he was expected to get a payout of £65.9m, while long-serving CEO Justin Gover was expected to receive £28.6m.

Dr Guy has invested his wealth in property, taking ownership of Axnoller Farm and Cheddington Court, a Jacobean-style grade II-listed house, both in Dorset. 

In 2018 he set up The Guy Foundation Family Trust, a charitable foundation which claims to ‘facilitate exploration into quantum effects in biology and the role it could play in advancing medicine’. 

Last year he released his second book about his experience in medicinal cannabis – ‘A Worthwhile Medicine: How the World’s First Cannabis-Based Medication Was Approved’.

Source: Read Full Article