Scientology ruins everything — even a massive onion farm in England

[Tom Abrey, farmer]

We want to thank the numerous readers in the UK who sent us links to stories that popped up yesterday there about a court decision involving, of all things, a Scientologist onion farmer.

We asked our friend Apostate Alex, who is still recovering from another massive success protesting the IAS gala at Saint Hill, if he had heard anything about it, and he did us even better by snagging the actual court decision for us to look at.

What’s going on is that a massive family farm is in turmoil as a legal partnership that has existed for decades is now undergoing possible dissolution in a case that is under arbitration. But in the meantime, one of the members of that partnership, a man named Tom Abrey, has asked a court for an injunction to protect his rights as the arbitration is going on, and on October 31 Justice Nicola Rushton of the High Court granted him that injunction.

And it was in that document that she laid out the whole family mess, and mentioned that it was Tom Abrey’s involvement in Scientology that may be what’s splitting apart the family.

The large operation, RG Abrey Farms, was started by a Russell Abrey in the 1930s, and then was handed down to three sons, Christopher, Richard, and Robert, who have largely stepped back as it was taken over by three of their sons, Tom, Giles, and Matthew.

The farm in Norfolk and Suffolk brings in about 80 million pounds a year in revenue, and about 7.5 million in profits, it has 93 employees, and basically everyone lives on the farm.

And over the last few years, Tom’s two uncles and two cousins have become sick and tired of him and want him out. (For simplicity’s sake, it’s essentially a fight between Tom, who oversees onions, and Giles, who oversees potatoes.)

But in the rules of the partnership that holds the farm, a partner can only be removed by the unanimous vote of all the others, and Tom’s father Christopher won’t vote with the others against his son. So in the arbitration, they are fighting out how to deal with this, and whether to dissolve the partnership or sell the farm altogether. That’s ongoing and is separate from the injunction that Tom was seeking.

There is also a company under the partnership that actually runs things and hires workers, and part of the dispute is that on September 27 Giles’s side removed Tom as a director of the company, which he says is in effect harming his rights as a partner, and this is what he asked the court to put a stop to.

"[Tom] claims that his authority has been undermined by Robert [uncle] and Giles [cousin], by criticism of him in front of employees, and that information about the business has been withheld from him. He also claims that his belief in Scientology has motivated negativity of the other Partners against him," Justice Rushton wrote.

She said that Giles responded that "Thomas is extremely difficult to work with and has been the subject of a large number of complaints from employees about his behaviour, which is said to be overbearing and potentially bullying."

She noted that Tom did apparently agree to some restrictions to stay away from the potato division and other things.

She also pointed out that although there is reported stress caused by the difficulties, the business is still doing very well.

So she has issued an injunction that keeps things the way they are as the arbitration proceeds, since Tom has agreed to abide by a set of instructions that keep him away from the other divisions.

And that’s really all that can be gleaned by her decision. She’s telling the rest of the family to stop messing with Tom’s rights until the arbitration can figure out what’s really going to happen to the family partnership.

Naturally, knowing Scientology as we do, we have lots of questions about what’s actually happening at the farm. Are allegations of Tom’s overbearing style related to an effort by him to impose L. Ron Hubbard “admin tech” on RG Abrey Farms? Is he asking employees to read The Way to Happiness and to sign up for a Purification Rundown at the local org?

We haven’t seen any completions records for Tom Abrey, and his name hasn’t shown up here at the Bunker in our lists of big donors that appear in Scientology’s Impact magazine. So there’s a lot we don’t know about Tom and his involvement.

But you can bet that the judge’s citation of RG Abrey Farms pulling in millions in revenue and profits will have caught David Miscavige’s eye!

“Clearly, 'the tech' has caused more problems than it's solved and I think Abrey's brothers are wise to approach his Scientology connections with caution,” Alex said after he sent us the court decision. “They have clearly stated that it is a cause for concern and it'll be interesting to see whether the judge allows further exploration into why. Certainly a case to watch!”

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