LONGER VERSION: Australian, 62, wanted over rape and sex assaults in homeland is arrested on Thai island

An Australian tourist allegedly wanted for sex crimes in his home country was arrested on a tropical Thai island.

Fugitive holidaymaker Helio Taiyang Richardson, 62, was said to have flown to Thailand to evade 13 charges of sexual assault and two charges of rape in Australia.

He had reportedly been planning to retire on the idyllic island of Koh Pha Ngan - home of the Full Moon Party - in Surat Thani province when authorities nabbed him on September 12 for overstaying his visa.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Sanguansap Lapsanong of the Surat Thani Immigration Bureau said: ‘The suspect has been charged with overstaying, and the inquiry officer of Koh Phangan Police Station will proceed with legal action.

'He will be deported and blacklisted from the Kingdom for visa offences.'

The Surat Thani Immigration Bureau said Richardson entered Thailand on June 16 through a visa exemption program for Australian tourists. He applied for a visa extension which expired on August 14. They investigated him after finding no records of him leaving Thailand.

However, a more thorough investigation found that the Aussie was the subject of an Interpol Blue Notice. Thai police called their Australian counterparts and learned that Richardson was wanted for 15 sex crime charges dating back to 2017.

He was handed over to the Koh Pha Ngan Police Station to be charged with overstaying before being held at the immigration jail in Bangkok to be deported to Australia.

Helio's arrest comes amid a crackdown on illegal foreigners staying in Thailand.

On September 3, British national Thomas Foley, 42, was arrested on Koh Pha Ngan for allegedly running an illegal beauty clinic that caused severe allergic reactions and paralysis in a customer.

Canadian masseur Ky Uwe Jablonowski, 48, was detained by police at a massage parlour on the same island on September 5. He was accused of possessing ecstasy and working in a job prohibited to foreigners.

On the same day, an Austrian man Guenter Mayerhofer, 44, and a Filipina woman Kathelyn Celestre, 47, were caught for allegedly working as illegal tour guides.