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ARB mounts first successful Scottish prosecution

ARB mounts first successful Scottish prosecution

November 13 2013

The Architects Registration Board has successfully brought its first Scottish prosecution in a case against CM Design, who were found to have misused the term ‘architect’.

Charges were brought against the firm in relation to its use of the proscribed term in its signage and trading style, in contravention of the Architects Act as none of its employees were registered with the ARB.

The ARB resorted to legal action after repeated warnings were ignored.

Commenting on the case an ARB spokesperson said: “CM Design failed to co-operate with ARB and continued to use the title ‘architects’ despite several warnings that they had no right to do so. This is the first Scottish case to be brought by the Procurator Fiscal relating to misuse of the title ‘architect’, and represents a very positive outcome. For a practice to hold themselves out as architects when they are not is misleading to the public, and will be dealt with by the Courts accordingly.”

CM Design pleaded guilty to the charge at Inverness Sheriff Court and were duly fined £400 and ordered to remove signage from both their Nairn and Elgin offices, an order which it has now complied with.

9 Comments

#1 Posted by boaby wan on 13 Nov 2013 at 12:28 PM

£400 for a company with two offices, is that really a massive deterrent?

#2 Posted by paul mycrackin on 13 Nov 2013 at 16:03 PM

Does it annoy anyone else that there is such a thing as an "Data Architect" in computing?

#3 Posted by Cadmonkey on 13 Nov 2013 at 18:25 PM

"The Architect of New Labour" is a very annoying expression. Will ARB prosecute the Labour Party now?

#4 Posted by Stef3d on 14 Nov 2013 at 00:14 AM

Yes Paul. Completely clogs up the search results when looking for jobs. Also "solutions architect", "systems architect" etc, some adverts just state "architect required", then you realise it's for a bank...

#5 Posted by stephen on 14 Nov 2013 at 12:14 PM

£400?!! I've paid more to the ARB in fees myself. What an absolute disgrace of a sanction.

#6 Posted by Hans Solo on 14 Nov 2013 at 12:21 PM

The whole 'solutions architect' also drives me mad. Can ARB not be chasing them down too? What is the point of paying ARB fees if I can call myself an Architect and work in IT??

#7 Posted by boaby wan on 14 Nov 2013 at 14:26 PM

what's the cost of the part III exam these days? probably around the same amount as the fine but without having to pay for any of the associated costs and the registration on passing... who set the fine?