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Professional Conduct Committee Decisions

ARCHITECTS REGISTRATION BOARD

PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT COMMITTEE

IN THE MATTER OF

FRANK PAWLOWSKI (045565B)

on

27 May2009

Cliffords Inn Conference Centre
Fetter Lane
London EC4A 1LD

Present:

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

Ms Nicola Hill appeared as Clerk to the Committee

Mr John Williams of Bankside Law appeared on behalf of the Board

Mr Pawlowski did not attend the hearing and was not represented

CHARGE

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

  1. that he failed to maintain adequate and appropriate professional indemnity insurance from 25 April 2008 to 13 February 2009
  2. that he failed to provide evidence of professional indemnity insurance to demonstrate compliance with Standard 8(3) of the Code
  3. that he failed to provide a substantive reply or to procure a substantive reply to correspondence from the Board in letters dated 18 April 2007, 7 June 2007, 25 April 2008, 24 June 2008 and 21 August 2008

DECISION

CHAIRMAN:  Mr Frank Pawlowski appears before us charged with an offence of unacceptable professional conduct.  There are two alternative allegations, one that he failed to maintain adequate and appropriate Professional Indemnity Insurance from the 25 April 2008 to the 13 February 2009.  The other is that he failed to provide evidence of such insurance as requested by the Board in various letters from April 2007 to August 2008.  We note that in 2003, Mr Pawlowski did make a return about insurance where he was apparently then protected by his employer, but he has not made any return since then, and we are prepared to make the inference in this case that he has failed to maintain adequate and appropriate Professional Indemnity Insurance, and we find 2.1 in the complainant solicitor’s statement of facts to be proved.

We also find that Mr Pawlowski failed to provide a substantive reply or procure such a reply to correspondence from the Board in various letters from the 18 April 2007 to the 12 November 2008.  These circumstances in both the failure to maintain insurance and the failure to reply to the letters from the Board amount to unacceptable professional conduct and we find the charge proved. 

We note that Mr Pawlowski appears to have had many opportunities to explain his position, and treated his regulatory body with a degree of contempt, and in the circumstances we decide that his name should be erased from the Register.  We also note that Mr Pawlowski was written to on the 4 March 2009, and told that if he failed to appear at the hearing, the Committee might indeed impose sanctions which included erasure from the Register, and we consider that he was well aware of the consequences of his actions.  Thank you.

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