Police station: Paralegal abused officers
A paralegal who was convicted of a public order offence and lied to her employer about why she was not in work that day has been banned from the profession.
Ayse Johnson had already been permanently excluded from membership of CILEX for other reasons.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has made her subject to an order under section 43 of the Solicitors Act 1974, which means she cannot work for a regulated law firm again without its permission.
A notice published this week recorded that, at the time of her misconduct, Ms Johnson was employed as a technical specialist at Optima Legal Services in Leeds, although she later moved to be a secretary and then a paralegal at a firm in North London.
On 8 July 2024, she was convicted at St Albans Crown Court of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour contrary to section 4A of the Public Order Act 1986.
According to a local newspaper report, she claimed she had been the victim of racism when she was arrested at her home by two officers in late 2021.
Ms Johnson was captured on body-worn police cameras arguing with a white officer as she arrived at the police station, St Albans Crown Court heard, calling a white officer “racist scum” and then referring to their Asian colleague as “your P*** friend”.
She was due to stand trial on a charge of a racially aggravated public order offence, but after she apologised in court to the officer, the prosecutor accepted her plea of guilty to the lesser public order offence. She was ordered to pay £100 compensation, £100 fine and £1,000 costs.
Ms Johnson, 34 at the time of the trial, was quoted as telling the Asian officer: “I sincerely apologise for the words I used. I didn’t mean to cause offence or offend. I have received racial abuse, being of dual heritage. I realise how hurtful it can be.”
The SRA said that, on the day of the trial, she told Optima Legal that the reason for her absence from work was that she had a migraine.
Further, it said, the CILEX disciplinary tribunal made findings of professional misconduct against Ms Johnson in February 2025, including failing to act with honesty and integrity.
According to CILEx Regulation, she misled or intended to mislead the Law Society “by falsely representing on the Conveyancing Quality Scheme application that she was a Fellow of CILEX and a CILEx Conveyancing Practitioner when she knew this was not true”.
She similarly told “clients, solicitors and others” that she was a Fellow.
Ms Johnson also failed to declare to the regulator that she was under investigation and then charged with the public order offence “when she knew or ought to have known that this would affect her CILEX membership”.
The tribunal ordered that she be excluded from CILEX membership indefinitely.
The SRA said it imposed the section 43 order because her dishonesty and conviction “risks affecting public trust and confidence in the profession”.
Ms Johnson was also ordered to pay “a proportion” of the SRA’s costs of £1,350.