Keith Guy William Armstrong

Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision

The Respondent, a partner at Dundas & Wilson, accessed a confidential, commercially sensitive Tender (for a project worth over £500,000) prepared by competitor Firm X, which he found at home belonging to his partner Ms B. Without her knowledge or consent, he copied and adapted parts of it into D&W's competing Tender, submitting it as D&W's own work. The plagiarism was discovered by Renfrewshire Council, after which he admitted his actions and resigned. The Tribunal found him guilty of professional misconduct, describing his conduct as fraudulent and deceitful and at the very serious end of the scale. Despite mitigation (work pressure, mental health, cooperation, remorse, out of character), the Tribunal struck him off the Roll. The conduct was described as fraudulent/deceitful and as bringing his integrity into question, but the Tribunal did not make an express finding of dishonesty. No compensation was awarded; he was found liable for expenses.

Duties found breached:

• Honesty
• Not mislead third parties or opponents
• Uphold public trust in the profession
• Handle inadvertently received material

Mitigating factors:

• Owned up as soon as the plagiarism was discovered
• Working in a very pressurised environment affecting his mental health
• Conduct was out of character and may have been an aberration
• Fully cooperated with proceedings; pled guilty from the outset
• Showed remorse and insight
• Sought medical treatment
• Going through a separation and divorce
• Offered an undertaking not to return to private practice
• Isolated single incident involving one document
• Did not access the financial/pricing parts of the Tender