A CONSERVATIVE councillor has blamed her "emotional state" for choosing to drive her car in the early hours of the morning after drinking wine with a friend, a court has heard.
Lesley-Jayne Marfleet, 47, of The Lord Nelson Inn, in Main Street, Fulstow admitted drink-driving when she appeared at Skegness Magistrates' Court.
She was nearly three times the legal drink-drive limit.
The councillor represents the Tetford ward on East Lindsey District Council for the Conservatives.
Paul Wood, prosecuting, said that in the early hours of Easter Sunday, April 20, she was seen by police to be driving erratically in her Volkswagen Tiguan in Ludborough Road, North Thoresby and, after she was stopped, it was obvious she was the worse for drink as she had glazed eyes and slurred speech.
Following a positive breath test, she was arrested and gave a reading of 98 mcg of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath.
The legal limit for drivers is 35mcg.
In mitigation, it was said that she had been in an "emotional state" as she had separated from her husband a year ago and the divorce had just become final.
It was said that she had been particularly low that weekend and had gone to meet a friend in Louth and had some wine but had not eaten at all.
She had intended to get a taxi home but there was a long queue at the taxi rank so, in her inebriated state, she made the decision to drive her car home.
She was fined £400 and ordered to pay a £40 victims' surcharge and £85 costs.
She was also banned from driving for 25 months but was offered the drink drivers' rehabilitation course, which could reduce the period of disqualification by six months, if successfully completed.
Marfleet won the Tetford seat in May 2011 with more than 600 votes.
She was in court in Lincoln last year for failing to have an MoT.
The councillor, then living at Highlander Farm, South Ormsby Road, Tetford, near Horncastle, pleaded guilty to driving without an MoT certificate. She was given a conditional discharge for six months and ordered to pay costs of £43.
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