Conor Johnstone
Introduction
Conor Johnstone is a 34-year-old English solicitor who specialises in motoring law. A director of MAJ Law, a firm that acts for drink drivers, he has been convicted of impersonating a police officer after he posed as a policeman to persuade a Nando’s restaurant to hand over CCTV footage of a couple who had dined there the day before. According to the prosecution case, the couple included his pregnant ex-partner, whom he wanted to spy on. Johnstone denies that motive and has told RollOnFriday that he is appealing the ruling.
Background Information
Johnstone is the director of MAJ Law, a UK motoring-law firm whose clients include people charged with drink-driving offences. He has styled himself “The Legal Missile”, and his online profile states that he is “built for high performance and fast decisions – just don’t get in his way”.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
In 2025, a man called a Nando’s restaurant near Warrington and asked for CCTV footage of a couple who had eaten there the day before. He introduced himself as “PC Matt Gregory” of Cheshire Constabulary and claimed he was investigating an altercation between two customers that had been reported to the police. Nando’s employee Gabby Ball later told Leeds Magistrates Court that the caller “sounded professional and as though he knew what he was talking about”.
The caller followed up with an email from the address ‘[email protected]’, complete with the Cheshire Constabulary crest, giving his job title as “Family liaison officer with the domestic violence unit”. When the restaurant requested a data request form, the caller filled it out using the fake persona’s details and provided descriptions of the two people he wanted to see on CCTV.
The ruse unravelled when Nando’s staff tried to reply to the fake email account and found their messages bounced back. They phoned Cheshire Police and were told that PC Gregory did not exist. Real Cheshire Police officers then traced the email account to Johnstone, whose debit card had been used to buy the email domain name.
Public Reaction and Consequences
Johnstone, who is the director of MAJ Law, told police that other people in his firm had access to his internet account and debit card. At his trial, he denied that he wanted the CCTV footage to spy on his pregnant ex-partner, and claimed that she had in fact been behind the ruse herself. “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. The defence failed to convince the magistrates, who found him guilty of impersonating a police officer.
Commenters on the RollOnFriday article were sharply critical of Johnstone, with several describing his conduct as stalkerish and questioning why the Solicitors Regulation Authority had not yet taken action against him. Other readers suggested the conviction had “all the hall marks of a strike off offence”, although no regulatory finding was reported in the article.
Current Status
Johnstone was found guilty of impersonating a police officer at Leeds Magistrates Court in July 2026. He maintains his innocence and has lodged an appeal against the conviction. “The decision of the court went against the weight of the evidence, which was circumstantial at best”, he told RollOnFriday.
“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”, Johnstone said.
Impact on Their Career/Life
The conviction is a serious blemish on the record of a solicitor whose own online profile, quoted in the reporting, describes him as “built for high performance and fast decisions – just don’t get in his way”. An adjudication note: the finding against Johnstone is a magistrates’ court conviction; he denies wrongdoing, claims his ex-partner staged the ruse, says the evidence was circumstantial, and has told RollOnFriday an appeal to the Crown Court has been lodged. No SRA or other regulatory action is recorded in the source article. It remains to be seen how the appeal will affect his standing with the regulator, his role at MAJ Law, and the future of the firm he runs.
Sources
- RollOnFriday, “Solicitor impersonated policeman ’to spy on ex-girlfriend at Nando’s’”, 10 July 2026. source