A leading councillor has admitted driving home from a council meeting nearly twice the legal limit.

Cllr Jane Martin, Conservative member for Saxon Shore ward and a former member of Ashford Borough Council’s (ABC) cabinet, pleaded guilty to drink driving at Folkestone Magistrates Court.

Magistrates heard how 51-year-old marketing consultant, Ms Martin, had been driving home on the A20 around 11pm on Thursday, April 14, following a meeting.

Mr Rio Pahlavanpour, prosecuting, said: “The police were passing and spotted the car parked with interior lights on and the hazards were flashing.

“They found the defendant by the vehicle who said she had two flat tyres as a result of going over a pothole.

“As a result of the interaction, the officers noticed liquor on her breath.

“She failed a roadside breath test, was taken to the police station where she provided two more breath tests.”

Ms Martin was found to have 61 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath – the legal limit is 35 micrograms.

Her defence lawyer, Mr Barton, said she had consumed three glasses of red wine that evening, between 7pm and 11pm.

He said: “She was sure that level of consumption would not have put her over the drink drive limit.

“She was aghast with the reading. She thought there must have been something wrong with the breath testing equipment.

“She is very well thought of by her contemporaries and is someone who takes what has happened with the utmost seriousness and approaches it with the utmost sincerity.

“She is of previous good character and this was not a case of lack of thought or carelessness.”

But Ms Diana Scowan, chair of the magistrates, said a disqualification was inevitable and Ms Martin should have known better.

She was ordered to pay a £805 fine and given a 16 month driving ban.

Ms Scowan added: “We feel as someone who works in hospitality that really you should know the safest option is no drinking at all.

“You read about this in the papers every day so we feel it was a bad judgement, particularly three glasses of red wine.”

Ms Martin, who lives in Shottenden, was offered a the opportunity to participate in a drink driving course, which would bring her disqualification down by four months.

Ms Scowan added: “You can get your licence back on October 3, 2017 so that’s one year off the road.

“We hope this is a big lesson.”

Cllr Jane Martin had been Ashford Borough Council’s (ABC) cabinet member at the time of the offence with the portfolio for council information and communication.

She was no longer in this position the following, which according to a spokesman for the council was due a reshuffle.

Ms Martin was formerly a partnership governor of the East Kent Hospitals Universities Foundation NHS Trust (EKHUFT), but no longer holds that position.

She is still trustee for Ashford Almshouses and Parochial Charities and for Brook Agricultural Museum.

Speaking to the KentOnline's sister paper the Kentish Express after her conviction, she said: “I really did think I was okay to drive, I would not have got in a car if I had thought otherwise.

“I was hugely shocked with the reading. I hit a pothole and it deflated my tyre, it’s not like I had been driving erratically.

“I’m not standing down from any of my positions. I have already taken steps to make sure it does not affect my commitments and responsibilities. It will cost a lot of money but I suppose it’s an expensive lesson.”