An Auckland motel owner has been found guilty of organising a child sex tour to Thailand, but not guilty of promoting sex tours.

The 47-year-old motel and property owner, who has name suppression, was charged with publishing material promoting underage sex tours and making travel arrangements for underage sex tours for an undercover police officer.

Justice Wylie heard the case alone without a jury.

During the trial, defence lawyer Chris Wilkinson Smith said his client accepted he was attracted to teenage boys but he wanted to "keep it legal".

The man was "troubled" when the undercover police officer expressed a desire for underage prostitutes.

Wilkinson Smith said the man's "solution" to his and his client's proclivities was "legal boys who look a lot younger".

The man told the police officer there were 18-year-old Thai boys who were "absolutely stunning" and "you could mistake them for a 12-year-old".

"He couldn't change his sexual predisposition but he could change his behaviour," Wilkinson Smith said.

The charge of publications promoting a sex tour related to a gay tourism website the man ran.

Its "metadata" (unseen terms for search engines to latch on to) included the term "boy", though this was meant in the Thai context where boy meant a teenage, legal prostitute, Wilkinson Smith said.

He said the only person to respond to the website in its three years of operation was the undercover officer.

The Crown said the man was recorded saying to the undercover police officer: "I don't even know you, you could well be a police officer."

Prosecutor Natalie Walker said this statement showed the man was aware what he was discussing was illegal and yet he went ahead with the plans regardless.

She said he toured Thailand for sex with underage "boys" but the man replied that he was attracted to boys but he knew the law and was careful not to break it.

The court was shown photographs that showed him with a boy who looked to be in his early teens.

The man said he became "involved" with the boy later that night, but the youth was actually 19.

Walker showed him an email in which he said he had picked up a 14-year-old boy in a Thai park and taken him back to his hotel.

The man said he did, but he only took the boy to the hotel restaurant and had tea with him.

He later agreed that he had "no moral issue with older Western males having sex with underage boys".

Other emails showed him describing his interactions with boys who were "very green and really raw".

The man continually asserted that he was referring to over-18s.

When the undercover police officer specified a preference for young boys, the man said their travel arrangements were designed to keep the man "safe".

He said he meant he would show the officer "the Thailand he knew" and what he did after that was up to him.

- © Fairfax NZ News