Architect struck off register after racially abusing taxi driver and writing off his car

A newly qualified architect has been struck off the register by the Architects Registration Board (Arb) after racially abusing a taxi driver, stealing the driver’s car and crashing it into a fence.

Thomas Ford had been celebrating the completion of his architecture training before the incident on 5 November 2022, for which he was handed an 18-week prison sentence suspended for two years.

The Arb, which was only made aware of the offence when Ford renewed his membership of the body on 31 December 2024, issued an erasure order last week.

Ford had been celebrating his recent qualification as a chartered architect with friends and colleagues from Macclesfield-based architecture practice NBDA Architects on the evening of the incident and a taxi had been booked to take them home.

After other passengers had been dropped off and with Ford left as the last remaining passenger, the police report stated Ford had struck up a conversation with the driver which escalated into verbal and racial abuse from Ford directed at the driver’s Pakistani heritage.

Ford then began to punch the driver, causing the car to swerve. The driver stopped the vehicle, after which Ford continued to punch him and pushed him out of the car before getting into the driver’s seat and driving away, leaving the driver in the road.

A statement from Royal Stoke University Hospital confirmed the presence of a small graze to the taxi driver’s left cheek.

The taxi was later found damaged beyond repair after having crashed into a residential garden, destroying a fence. Police attended the scene and discovered Ford hiding in a tree. He was given a breath test and found to have a reading almost three times over the drink-driving limit, although no drink-driving offences were alleged against him.

On 20 November 2023 Ford was convicted of unlawfully destroying a Toyota Prius worth £22,240, causing £1,300 of damage to a fence, and causing harassment, alarm or distress using language which was racially aggravated.

In a statement provided on 27 July 2025, Ford said he was “deeply ashamed” at the incident and had “let down not only myself but the profession I worked so hard to join”.

In his interview with police Ford had denied punching the taxi driver and told Arb he had pleaded guilty on legal advice, adding in his statement to the regulator that he believed the driver’s impact statement was “exaggerated”. He said he has “never held any racist or discriminatory views” and finds the idea “abhorrent”.

However, the Arb said that by his guilt pleas he ”had accepted the factual basis of the allegations”.

Explaining why it had taken him more than a year to inform the regulator of his conviction, which must be declared within 28 days under Arb rules, Ford said he had been overwhelmed by the stress of the situation.

The Arb said the convictions were materially relevant to Ford’s fitness to practice because of the use of racist language towards a member of the public, the suspended prison sentence and because his conduct brings the wider profession into disrepute.

The regulator’s professional conduct committee described the incident as a “personal tragedy” for Ford after he had worked for many years to achieve his qualifications. 

However, the committee concluded 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”.

Ford was not given the minimum two-year period before he can apply for the restoration of his registered status, which will be subject to the consideration of the Arb Board depending on an assessment of whether Ford has successfully rehabilitated himself.

Ford is understood to have voluntarily left his employment with NBDA Architects in May last year, and the Arb ruling states that he set up his own practice in 2024. 

NBDA Architects declined to comment.