Roll On Friday
A solicitor has been convicted of impersonating a police officer to find out who was treating his ex-girlfriend to a Nando’s. He has told RollOnFriday he is appealing the ruling.
34-year-old motoring specialist Conor Johnstone, who acts for drink drivers and dubs himself the ‘The Legal Missile’, was found to have contacted the Nando’s restaurant near Warrington last year asking for CCTV footage of a couple who had dined there the day before.
The court heard that Johnstone introduced himself as ‘PC Matt Gregory’ from Cheshire Constabulary and claimed he was investigating an altercation between two customers which had been reported to the police.
Nando’s employee Gabby Ball told Leeds Magistrates Court that he “sounded professional and as though he knew what he was talking about”.
Johnstone trial was told that he followed up with an email from ‘matt.gregory@cheshirepolice.uk’ which included the Cheshire Constabulary crest, and which gave his job title as ‘Family liaison officer with the domestic violence unit’.
When Nando’s requested a data request form, the solicitor filled it out using his phony persona’s details and provided descriptions of the two people he wanted to see on CCTV, the court heard.
Nando’s staff phoned Cheshire Police when their replies to the fake email account bounced back, and were told that PC Gregory was not real.
Actual Cheshire Police officers then traced the account to Johnstone, whose debit card had been used to buy the email domain name.
Johnstone, who is the director of MAJ Law, told the police that other people in his firm had access to his internet account and debit card.
At his trial, Johnstone denied that he wanted the CCTV footage to spy on his pregnant ex-partner, and claimed that in fact she was behind the ruse.
“It is my belief [my ex-partner] contacted Nando’s to view my current partner either with me or with someone else to try to break us up”, he said.
Johnstone’s defence failed to convince the magistrates, who found him guilty of impersonating a police officer.
The lawyer, whose online profile states that he is “built for high performance and fast decisions – just don’t get in his way”, told RollOnFriday, “The decision of the court went against the weight of the evidence, which was circumstantial at best”.
He said, “It highlights everything wrong with magistrates courts in this country. An appeal has been lodged and I’m confident the Crown Court will reach the right decision. For now though, I’m busy running the UK’s favourite driving defence firm”.
