Former Cathedral Dean appears in court on fraud charges

Jonathan Kirkpatrick
Jonathan Kirkpatrick
The former dean of Dunedin's St Paul's cathedral appeared in court this afternoon, accused of fraudulently taking $666,000 from Auckland University of Technology (AUT).

AUT's former Business Innovation Centre chief executive Jonathan Kirkpatrick was arrested this morning and charged with seven counts of fraud, relating to alleged offending between January 2003 and May this year.

In Auckland District Court this afternoon his lawyer, Russell Fairbrother, said his client "took full responsibility for his actions" and intended to enter a plea when he next appeared on August 7.

Police allege that Kirkpatrick used false invoices in the name of companies Eventure and Halsey Consulting limited to obtain funds from the university.

He is also alleged to have made false records while acting as a servant of AUT and to have tampered with the university's accounting system.

He did not apply for name suppression in court today and was granted bail.

Kirkpatrick, who is the former partner of former Labour MP Tim Barnett, resigned last week after AUT identified "possible accounting discrepancies".

Kirkpatrick has a first class honours degree in theology from the University of London and an MBA from the University of Otago.

He was ordained as a priest in London in 1985 after beginning his career as a church army officer.

In 1996 he was made the 10th Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in Dunedin, working below the country's first female bishop, Penny Jamieson.

 

 

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