Disgraced former architect guilty of misusing title

Andrew James Plumridge fined for offence

A DISGRACED former architect has been convicted of illegally misusing his old professional title.

In 2013, Andrew James Plumridge, of Newbury firm Peter Scott & Partners, was kicked off the Architects Registration Board (ARB) register for unacceptable professional conduct.

The disciplinary panel ruled that, when a client made a formal complaint about Mr Plumridge’s conduct, he had responded by trying to smear the client’s reputation, writing to his bosses accusing him of theft and querying his mental health.

The ARB’s professional con-duct committee said of Mr Plumridge’s letter: “The panel [saw] this as a malicious and discreditable attempt to impugn [the client’s] reputation, intimidate [the client] from pursuing his involvement in these proceedings, an attempt to disrupt these proceedings and demonstrating a severe lack of integrity and professionalism.”

In addition, the panel found Mr Plumridge had acted “without honesty or integrity” towards his client in a series of actions that had prompted the initial complaint. He was struck from the register.

Now a judge has convicted him on five counts of the criminal offence of misusing the title ‘architect’.

A district judge sitting at Reading Magistrates’ Court on May 25 heard that, despite having been erased from the Register of Architects, Mr Plumridge had “continued to practise under the name, style or title of ‘architect’, contrary to section 20 of the Architects Act 1997”.

Mr Plumridge was charged in relation to using the title in planning applications; when taking out an advert with Yell.com; by using the acronym RIBA (Royal Institution of British Architects) after his name and through the use of his website and email address.

He denied all of the charges, maintaining that he was not carrying on business, that he had no control over the Yell.com advert, that he was entitled to continue to use the acronym RIBA as he was still a member, and that, while he had instructed his website’s hosting company to remove the website, that company had failed to do so.

In convicting on all five charges, the judge found that Mr Plumridge had clearly been carrying on a business, and so the use of the word architect in his website and email address was illegal, as was his use of the acronym RIBA.

His advertising as an architect was, the judge said, a deliberate act and not a mistake on the part of the directory, and his explanation in relation to the website hosting company lacked any credibility.

Overall, the judge ruled, it was a deliberate attempt by Mr Plumridge to circumvent legislation with which he did not agree.

After taking into account Mr Plumridge’s restricted means, the court imposed a fine of £1,500 with a further £2,530 in costs and surcharges.