An Otago man has escaped prison, after being caught driving while grossly intoxicated

Wayne Kearns has admitted he'd had 16 beers, when he was pulled over on Factory Road in Mosgiel in early September.

It was the 50-year-old's seventh drink-driving conviction.

At sentencing in the Dunedin District Court, Judge Michael Turner called Kearns "without doubt, a menace on the road".

But he stopped short of locking him up because it had been seven years since his last conviction.

Instead, he sentenced him to five months' community detention and 12 months' supervision.