Architect Karin Elliott struck off for at least two years over accusations against neighbours

Mixed · 2The Architects Registration Board struck off Dr Karin Elliott for a minimum of two years after finding her guilty of unacceptable professional conduct by sending inappropriate communications. 1 2 Mixed · 2The tribunal found that in 2024 she used 'inflammatory language, making a series of misleading and potentially damaging accusations' against her neighbours in Norwich 'with scant regard to their accuracy', and the board described her actions as 'misleading, lacking integrity and dishonest'. 1 2 Mixed · 2One neighbour was accused of 'racial harassment' after Elliott falsely said he wielded a chainsaw in her garden; her March 2024 planning appeal form said she had 'begged him to turn off his chainsaw' and considered it racial harassment. 1 2

Mixed · 2Her partner, Francois Girardin, who is French, told the tribunal that none of the neighbours said 'anything directly racist' but that he inferred racism from a Union Jack sometimes appearing, a wall built after the US President spoke of building a big wall, and a neighbour's family cheering for England, especially against France. 1 2 Mixed · 2In cross-examination Elliott said that, from 'a psychoanalytic perspective', a neighbour repeatedly driving across her driveway in his car, a 'phallic symbol', was a manifestation of gender violence; the tribunal said this 'underscored how tenuously she constructed serious accusations against other people, and how casually she dispensed them'. 1 2 Mixed · 2She had applied in December 2023 to install CCTV cameras and in February 2024 wrote to residents seeking support, making allegations the tribunal found 'dishonest' and 'misleading', including that one neighbour had smashed historic walls and chopped down trees, another used abusive language and threatened her with a hammer, and a third sang Tragedy by the Bee Gees from a balcony after her father's death. 1 2

Right · 1Asked in cross-examination, Elliott said: 'I think I'd give this letter a serious editing if I did it again.' 2 Mixed · 2Neighbours told the tribunal the accusations were a source of 'acute embarrassment and personal discomfort' and 'very depressing and upsetting', and one called her an 'absolute disgrace to her profession'. 1 2 Mixed · 2The conduct followed a 2021 finding of unacceptable professional conduct against her for calling neighbours 'racists and Nazis' and making offensive references to their physical characteristics and mental health. 1 2