A top motoring lawyer who boasts of exploiting legal loopholes to defend drink and drug drivers has been found guilty of impersonating a police officer to obtain CCTV from a Nando’s restaurant.

Conor Johnstone, 34, posed as a police constable using a fake name and created a fake police email account to repeatedly pester Nando’s staff for camera footage – so he could allegedly spy on his ex-partner dining with a new man.

Flashy Johnstone, who has said his nickname is ‘The Legal Missile’, first contacted the Nando’s restaurant in upmarket Stockton Heath, near Warrington, on July 22 last year.

He said he was ‘PC Matt Gregory’ from Cheshire Constabulary and claimed there had been an incident between two customers the previous day and one of the parties involved had complained to the police, Leeds Magistrates Court heard on Thursday.

‘PC Gregory’ said he required CCTV footage of the couple in question.

Nando’s worker Gabby Ball told a trial that he ‘sounded professional and as though he knew what he was talking about.’

‘Everything seemed normal, it was believable that he was a police officer at that time,’ she added.

She asked whether the officer could send an email because she was busy and later that evening a message arrived from a ‘matt.gregory@cheshirepolice.uk’ account asking for CCTV footage with descriptions of a man and a woman.

Conor Johnstone, 34, posed as a police constable using a fake name and created a fake police email account to repeatedly pester Nando’s staff for camera footage

The high-flying solicitor who specialises in defending people accused of drink and drunk driving will be sentenced next month (pictured at Leeds Magistrates Court last week)

The email bore the Cheshire Constabulary crest and the details of ‘PC Gregory’, including his collar number – 3197 – and his job title: ‘Family liaison officer with the domestic violence unit.’ 

Staff then asked Johnstone, the owner and director of Widnes-based law firm MAJ Law, established by his father, to fill out a Data Protection Act form.

He did so, using the false police officer details, but then sent further ‘pushy’ emails, the court heard.

When emails to ‘PC Gregory’s’ email account started bouncing back, suspicious staff then phoned Cheshire Police on the 101 non-emergency number and discovered PC Gregory did not exist.

Officers from Cheshire Police requested information from internet provider Heart Internet and discovered the account which created and sent the emails belonged to Johnstone.

A debit card in his name was also used to buy a domain name which allowed him to create the fake police emails, the court was told.

Unaware he had been rumbled, Johnstone again rang the Nando’s branch and staff recorded him asking for the CCTV.

When confronted with the evidence, Johnstone, of Knutsford, Cheshire, denied impersonating a police officer.

He said many people connected to his legal firm had access to the Heart Internet account and while the debit card was registered in his name, other people had access to it because it was a ‘company’ card.

Standing trial at Leeds Magistrates Court last week [THURS], prosecutor Nicki Forster suggested Johnstone wanted the CCTV to spy on his ex-partner of some 12 years, India Boydell, who was pregnant with their third child at the time.

‘This was a video of a man and a woman,’ she said. ‘Might it have been to see whether your ex-partner was in it?’

In online profiles, Johnstone said his nickname was ‘The Legal Missile’. He is the owner and director of MAJ Law, founded by his father, Marcus

Johnstone denied this was the case and instead claimed Miss Boydell may have created the fake police emails to spy on him and his new partner in the restaurant.

‘The girl described in the email is my current partner,’ he told the court. ‘It is my belief India contacted Nando’s to view my current partner either with me or with someone else to try to break us up.’

Miss Boydell was not present in court and did not respond to a request for comment.

Johnstone claimed he had nothing to do with the emails – telling the court he flew to New York days after the initial incident and ‘had no reason to be requesting CCTV footage from [Nando’s].’

However two magistrates dismissed his claims and he was found guilty of impersonating a police officer following the half-day trial.

After the hearing Johnstone said: ‘I am very disappointed with the court’s verdict today and I will be appealing against the decision.’

On an online biography, Johnstone says he is ‘built for high performance and fast decisions – just don’t get in his way.’

He regularly posts tips on YouTube of how to avoid driving convictions and has previously defended the likes of ex-Liverpool striker Dean Saunders, who was jailed for 10 weeks for failing to take a breath test, and Love Island winner Jack Fincham.

His law firm’s website says it can help clients by ‘discussing potential loopholes’ and ‘finding fault with police procedure.’

In 2018, MAJ Law was branded ‘immoral’ by Brake, the road safety charity for its online videos helping motorists avoid drink or drug driving bans.

Johnstone will be sentenced next month.