Revealed: Disgraced architect is working as ‘building designer’ 

A disgraced architect who was struck off for racially abusing and assaulting a taxi driver is still running a company offering building design services, we can reveal.

Thomas Ford, 28, who also stole the driver’s Toyota Prius car and crashed it, had his name removed from the UK’s register of architects last week after he was given a suspended jail sentence.

The sanction by the Architects Registration Board’s professional conduct committee means he is no longer legally entitled to call himself an architect.

But the Daily Mail has found that Ford, who assaulted the driver on a drunken night out to celebrate qualifying as an architect, is still running a so-called ‘architecture and visualisation’ business which designs new buildings for clients.

Ford appears to have got round any breach of the rules by not describing himself as an architect on the website of his company Tom Ford Architecture Limited.

Companies House records reveal he is the sole director of the company which was set up in 2021, and give his occupation as ‘architectural designer’.

His business website, which is still up and running, makes no mention of the judgement against him and his ‘erasure’ from the UK’s list of official architects.

Instead, it features glossy computer-generated pictures of home extensions and office buildings which he has apparently designed.

Guidance issued by the Royal Institute for British Architects, states: ‘If a person is ‘struck off’, he or she will no longer be legally entitled to practice architecture in the UK under the title ‘architect’.’

The guidance adds: ‘A person who is either suspended or ‘erased’ (struck off) the Register, either temporarily or permanently, must cease practising architecture under the title ‘architect’ in the UK.

‘But, since the ARB deals with protection of title, not function, he or she can nevertheless continue to practice as before, but it must be under a different, unprotected, title such as ‘designer’ or ‘consultant’.’

Ford of Congleton, Cheshire, has also been enjoying luxury holidays and breaks with his fiancée ever since his conviction in October 2023, according to her Facebook page.

The couple were pictured in the Dominican Republic in February this year, at Glastonbury in June and completing the North Coast 500 circular route around Scotland in a camper van in July.

Ford was struck off following a hearing by the ARB’s professional standards committee held on Monday and Tuesday last week.

The hearing was told how he had gone out with former work colleagues in Macclesfield, Cheshire, on the night of November 4, 2022, to celebrate him having recently qualified after years of training.

The group booked a taxi to take them home in the early hours of November 5 and he became the last one left in the car.

Once alone with the driver, Ford struck up a conversation with him, asking where he was from, but when he said ‘Manchester’ the architect asked ‘where are you actually from?’ to which the driver replied ‘Pakistan’.

Ford then became ‘irate’ and said ‘why don’t you go back where you came from?’, and called the driver a ‘P*** b******’, the hearing was told.

He then began to punch the driver, which caused the car to swerve and come to a halt.

Ford continued striking the driver before shoving him out of the Toyota Prius and driving off with the car, the committee was told.

The taxi, worth £22,240, was later found destroyed after it wrecked a fence and crashed into a residential garden.

Police found Ford trying to hide behind a nearby tree when they arrived at the crash scene.

He was arrested and breathalysed – with the test finding him well over the legal limit.

In his police interview later that day, Ford claimed the taxi driver was the aggressor and denied punching him.

Ford appeared at Warrington Magistrates’ Court in October 2023 and admitted two counts of criminal damage in relation to the car and the fence, as well as one count of racially-aggravated harassment and one count of racially-aggravated assault.

The next month, he was handed an 18-week prison sentence suspended for two years with 10 days of rehabilitation activity.

However, Ford did not report his conviction to the ARB until he was renewing his license at the end of 2024 despite regulations requiring convictions to be reported within 28 days.

He told the regulatory body he had ‘overlooked’ his obligation because he was ‘overwhelmed’ by the stress of the conviction.

The committee agreed to strike him off the register, ruling that the public would be ‘rightly appalled’ by his actions, and any lesser action would not be appropriate.

Panel members acknowledged it was a ‘personal tragedy’ that after working so hard to gain his qualifications, he had been kicked out almost immediately.

They found that Ford had recognised the role alcohol played in his actions but had used this to separate his ‘real self’ from what he had done.

They concluded that his behaviour was aggravated by racial abuse and is ‘fundamentally incompatible’ with him remaining on the register.

The panel said: ‘[Ford] identifies the effect of alcohol as being a cause of his conduct but has used this to separate his ‘real’ self from the events in November 2022.

‘He is unable to explain why, when drunk, he would resort to racial slurs in order to insult.

‘The conduct that led to the convictions is fundamentally incompatible with continuing to be an architect.

‘The committee recognises that it is a personal tragedy for [Mr Ford] to have worked so hard to achieve qualifications as an architect only to mark the event with the shocking behaviour that led to his subsequent convictions.

‘However, the public would be rightly appalled at such behaviour and only erasure would sufficiently mark the misconduct if the standards of the profession are to be upheld and confidence in the integrity of the profession maintained.’

His business website boasts: ‘Tom Ford Architecture is a practice which balances both beautiful aesthetics and function, adding value to people lives whilst maximising the effectiveness of every space.

‘Whether it be a home extension or a commercial office, we work closely with our clients from the outset to understand what they require from the design and make the process as simple and impactful as possible.

‘Tom Ford Architecture was created to create a professional yet personal service to those wanting to avoid being lost in the paperwork of large organisations.

‘We aim to be a place where the smallest detail is given the attention it rightly deserves and a practice which will be happy to sit at a clients table to discuss design concepts and ideas.

‘We offer a wide range of services depending on the client’s requirements ranging from initial feasibility studies right through to 3D walkthrough videos of the final project before it has even begun, all of which are backed by several years of experience across (a) variety of sectors.’

Ford declined to comment about being struck off when approached by the Daily Mail, and did not respond to a request for comment about him still running his company.

In the UK it takes between five and seven years to qualify as an architect, requiring a recognised undergraduate degree, a year of practical work experience, a two-year Masters course, and a year of practical training before a final qualifying exam.