A Cheshire solicitor has avoided immediate custody after impersonating a police officer to obtain CCTV footage from Nando’s. Conor Johnstone, a director at MAJ Law in Warrington, was given a 12-month community order, ordered to complete 260 hours of unpaid work and told to pay costs and a surcharge. He had been convicted of impersonating a police constable.
Johnstone created the persona of “PC Matt Gregory” to trick restaurant staff into handing over CCTV so he could see whether his ex-partner was having dinner with another man. When the fake police email failed and staff became suspicious, Cheshire Police traced the trail back to him.
Impersonating a police officer is an offence because a police offer holds public power. People comply with officers because the law tells them to, because refusal may carry consequences, and because public trust makes the system function without every request becoming a constitutional seminar.
When a solicitor pretends to hold that authority, the professional problem becomes worse. Solicitors know how institutions work. They know why official-looking emails make ordinary people move. They know, or should know, that using the shadow of state power for private jealousy is not clever, punchy or tactical. It is misconduct.
There is a regulatory cloud over this even if the criminal sentence avoided jail. The SRA does not require solicitors to be flawless domestic saints. That would be a short roll! It does require them not to behave in ways that damage trust in the profession. A conviction involving deception and misuse of police identity is not a small embarrassment to be filed under “personal life”.
The sentencing may be over, but the professional consequences are unlikely to be. Criminal courts punish offences. Regulators ask what the offence says about judgment, honesty and public confidence. For a solicitor, that second question can last longer than the community order.
There are bad days at the office. Then there is creating a fake constable to check a Nando’s booking!
Author: Marcelo Williams
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