The Anglican church has severed its links with a former church minister who was the head of an Auckland University of Technology unit at the centre of a police fraud squad investigation.
AUT called in police after an internal audit detected the disappearance of more than $500,000 from its Business Innovation Centre.
The centre's CEO until recently was Jonathan Kirkpatrick, who was at the same time the priest in charge of the St Albans Anglican church at Balmoral in Auckland.
A spokesman for Bishop Ross Bay says Mr Kirkpatrick no longer has any role of responsibility in the church.
Mr Kirkpatrick was a former dean of St Paul's Cathedral in Dunedin.
RadioLIVE