Man charged with stealing dead French tourist Pierre Antoine Paludet's credit card

DROWNED: French tourist Pierre Paludet, whose body was found on a Napier beach this month.

A warrant for arrest has been issued for a Haumoana man charged with stealing a credit card belonging to dead French tourist Pierre Antoine Paludet.

Paludet, a 32-year-old French tourist, was last seen alive in the Domain carpark in Haumoana on the evening of Friday, January 12.

His body was found by a member of the public on the beach next to the former Winstone Aggregates site on State Highway 2 at Napier's Awatoto Beach on January 19.

Paludet was from Vallet in western France and had been travelling around New Zealand and camping out of his car, a navy blue station wagon. Police believed he was parked at Haumoana from January 10.

Terrance O'Sullivan, who lives near the car park in which Paludet's car was found, is accused of using the card for seven purchases totalling $289 at KMart, Countdown, a petrol station and on a Spark top-up card.

O'Sullivan was supposed to have appeared in Hastings District Court on Monday, but failed to appear and a warrant has been issued for his arrest.

Concerns for Paludet, who had been sleeping in his vehicle, were raised when locals noticed a build-up of rubbish and his station wagon seemingly abandoned, leading to a call to police the next afternoon.

Detective Senior Sergeant Martin James, of Hawke's Bay CIB, said public vigilance had been at the forefront of the inquiry and police have thanked the Haumoana community for their help in the investigation.

"If I can say anything positive about this, it's the amount of feedback and information that we got from the public was absolutely outstanding.

"Clearly people are quite observant and taking note of vehicles, people's actions, behaviour and descriptions."

Paludet's family had previously said they were very grateful for the support they had received from the Hawke's Bay community.

James said police were still waiting for full post-mortem results, which could take some months.

Paludet's death has been referred to the coroner .