Professional Conduct Committee Decisions

ARCHITECTS REGISTRATION BOARD

PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT COMMITTEE

IN THE MATTER OF

YVONNE HOWIE (073651A)

on

24 November 2009

Cliffords Inn Conference Centre
Fetter Lane
London EC4A 1LD

Present:

Chairman: Peter Verdin
PCC Member: Linda Read
PCC Member: Donal Hutchinson

Mr Stephen Battersby appeared as Clerk to the Committee

Mr Iain Miller of Bevan Brittan appeared on behalf of the Board

Ms Howie attended the hearing and represented herself

CHARGE

The charge is that the architect is guilty of unacceptable professional conduct on in the following respect:

i) she acted without integrity by making a statement to the Architects Registration Board which she knew to be misleading in breach of Standard 1.1 of the Architects Code of Conduct and Practice

DECISION

MR VERDIN:  Miss Howie, the allegation against you was one of unacceptable professional conduct in as much as you had made false statements to your professional regulator, namely the Architects Registration Board. You have this morning admitted the facts, but you did not admit that these facts amounted to unacceptable professional conduct.

The circumstances are that Miss Howie was asked by the Architects Registration Board about her use of the word ‘architect’ in an invoice which she had sent to clients. The invoice was dated the 11th of January 2008 and this was before Miss Howie had applied for entry on the Register of Architects and it was therefore before the time when she was entitled to use the word ‘architect’.

There was correspondence with the Board and Miss Howie was asked on four occasions if the invoice contained the word ‘architect’.  She denied that it did, firstly in a letter dated 4 May 2008 and then on 22 of May 2008 she wrote a letter in which she stated that the invoice had been altered, presumably by somebody else.  By a letter dated 3 of June 2008 Miss Howie repeated the claim that her clients had sent an altered invoice to the Architects Registration Board and then, by a letter dated 13 of December 2008, she again denied calling herself an architect before admission to the Register and in that letter she went on to say that her clients (and I quote) ‘Then amended and reprinted the invoice and sent the falsified invoice to the Architects Registration Board.’  This was a serious allegation of fraud which had been made against her clients and we find that it had been made without a shred of evidence. 

In these circumstances we find that the allegations have been proved and that they do indeed amount to unacceptable professional conduct.

MRS HOWIE SPOKE IN MITIGATION

MR VERDIN:  As you can see we have given considerable consideration to this matter.  I want to emphasise from the start that what we have been dealing with is the conduct of Miss Howie towards the Architects Registration Board, a regulatory body, and not her conduct towards her clients. 

We are satisfied that in her dealings with the Board Miss Howie has behaved with a lack of integrity.  She made not just a denial of the use of the word ‘architect’ on an invoice but there was a calculated attempt to blame others for what amounted to an act of dishonesty.  Miss Howie was given plenty of opportunities to acknowledge that the invoice in question had contained the word ‘architect’ or at least to exonerate her clients from a grave accusation which was made without any evidence and without any foundation.  A client must be entitled to rely on the integrity of their architect or of any other professional person. 

I am bound to say that we all have considerable sympathy for Miss Howie in respect of her personal circumstances, which are very sad.  But we have to have regard to the view of the public and the integrity of the profession and we conclude that there is no other penalty that can be imposed than one of erasure from the Register.                        

Thank you, Miss Howie.  So your name will be erased from the Register.

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