A Tauranga man killed in Gisborne last year was lured with what he thought was the promise of sex, a High Court has heard.

Amandeep Singh's body was found in the bushes near Kaiti Beach on December 29, 2012.

Two women are serving prison sentences after being convicted of manslaughter.

Police say he was assaulted and his unresponsive body was dragged into the bushes by two women. Amandeep's body was found in scrub on a section of Kaiti Beach Rd by people walking in the area on January 25.

Police say it was too badly decomposed for a cause of death to be determined.

Crystal Louise Black, 25, and her partner Krystel Therese Pokai, 24, were sentenced on a manslaughter charge to eight years and eight months by Justice Murray Gilbert in the High Court in Gisborne this week.

The women confessed to manslaughter after their lawyer's successful application to have them discharged of murder.

The pair were also charged with perverting the course of justice after they initially tried to implicate Black's aunt in the offending.

Black and Pokai admitted to assaulting 22-year-old Amandeep, who was in Gisborne doing seasonal work, and dragging his body into bushes.

They then took his car and bank card and attempted withdraw money from his account.

According to court documents, Amandeep had met Pokai on December 28 when he saw her walking home alone after a concert and offered her a lift.

The following day, the pair started to text each other, and that afternoon Black drove Pokai to where Amandeep was staying.

The Crown said Amandeep made an unwanted sexual advance to Pokai, which they said was the Black's and Pokai's motive for harming him.

Defence counsel rejected the claim saying the two women saw Amandeep as a source of easy gains.

The women lured Amandeep to their house on December 29 with the aim of stealing money and alcohol from him.

The defence said if they wanted to assault him they would have done it at their home and it was Amandeep who wanted to go to the beach and have sex.

Amandeep apparently got angry when he realised the women were lesbians and didn't want to have sex with him. Pokai said she hit Amandeep as hard as she could, but post-mortem results show no evidence he sustained significant injuries as a result of the blow.

Black admitted to holding Amandeep down, which the defence said could have caused him to have a heart attack or his airway to be blocked.

Justice Gilbert said the women had callous disregard for Amandeep after the assault as they knew they might have killed him but didn't seek help for him.

'Instead they drove his car and tried to steal from his bank account.”