AN ULSTER Unionist councillor is facing a possible jail sentence after being convicted of drink driving for a third time.
Derek Hussey (67), a councillor on Derry and Strabane District Council, admitted charges of driving with excess alcohol, driving without due care and attention and failing to report an accident where injury was caused.
A further three charges were withdrawn during the hearing at Strabane Magistrates Court on Thursday.
The charges related to a two-vehicle collision on Drumquin Road in Castlederg on September 16 last year.
The incident came just one year after Mr Hussey, a former MLA, got his licence back following another drink driving incident.
In 2011, Mr Hussey was banned from the road for three years after admitting drink driving for a second time.
On that occasion, he was found to be twice the legal limit when discovered beside a crashed car at Orchard Road in Strabane.
Police officers who were called to the single vehicle accident detected a smell of drink from the defendant and he admitted that he had been drinking whiskey in a nearby hotel earlier in the evening.
Sentencing Mr Hussey in 2011, District Judge Liam McNally warned the Ulster Unionist councillor that "a jail sentence could be on the cards" if he was caught drink driving again.
Mr Hussey will be sentenced next month.
