A 61-year-old buisinessman has spoken of his "anger and humiliation" after he was arrested for drink-driving even though he passed a breath test.

John Pratt returned to his office at Barretts of Canterbury after lunch on Monday to find police officers waiting for him.

Their vehicle boxed in his Jaguar and officers ordered him out of the car.

When he passed the breath test, giving a reading below the limit, Mr Pratt says he was told the equipment was faulty and that he would need to go to the police station for another test.

There again he took a breath test which was below the limit and he was eventually released more than two hours after his ordeal began.

Police say they took Mr Pratt to the station because he admitted he had been drinking and that this was standard procedure under the Road Traffic Act.

But Mr Pratt, who is his firm's financial controller and lives in Blean, complained: "I was arrested in front of the whole Barretts staff – that was very humiliating. I am incensed about the whole thing, very angry.

"In 37 years of driving, I have never done anything wrong, never picked up a point on my driving licence and never been arrested for anything in my life."

Mr Pratt, who also devotes much of his time to working for Canterbury Rugby Club, said the incident raises questions about the standards of the policing.

"One of the officers behaved very arrogantly and I felt as if this was being done vindictively rather than in the pursuit of justice," Mr Pratt said.

He had had lunch with a colleague at a pub where they drank wine. He believes someone in the pub saw him and called police.

Mr Pratt says the reading he gave on the Barretts' forecourt was 25 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35. The readings he gave at the police station were 22 and 20, again putting him well below the legal limit.

A Kent police spokesman defended the actions of the officers involved in the arrest, saying it was part of a battle to clamp down on drink-driving.

"Officers breath-tested a 61-year-old man in Canterbury on Monday afternoon because they suspected he had had a drink and then driven.

"The initial screening test indicated a level of alcohol and that it was within the legal range.

"Due to the circumstances, including the driver admitting he had had a drink, the officers arrested him (section four Road Traffic Act) and took him to a police station where he was breath-tested on a more sophisticated machine.

"Results from this machine are the ones used if a prosecution results. This test confirmed he was below the legal limit and the driver was released without charge.

"Kent police officers will continue to vigorously enforce drink-drive laws because too often they see the consequences of people who drive over the alcohol limit."