A former staff member at an exclusive girls' school in Sydney's eastern suburbs has been charged with fraud after allegedly embezzling more than $460,000 over a five-year period.
Ian MacCulloch, the former business manager at Kambala, was charged by detectives on Friday, nearly seven months after he was first accused.
Police will allege that Mr MacCulloch used school credit cards for personal purchases totalling almost half a million dollars between 2008 and 2013.
Mr MacCulloch was responsible for the financial management of the Rose Bay girls school, which charges up to $30,000 a year for an Anglican education. It caters to students from kindergarten to year 12 and has an annual income of more than $28 million a year.
The 56-year-old described himself as a "key person on the school's senior executive and involved in strategy and management" on his LinkedIn profile.
In 2010, the school thanked Mr MacCulloch for his "financial management" which helped them refurbish one of their libraries.
He also received praise from his previous employer, the Armidale School. "We are is indebted to him for his drive and his efforts" and for his "outstanding leadership," the school wrote in a newsletter in 1998.
Up until 2013, Mr MacCulloch was also on the council of the Sydney College of Divinity, which provides education for Christian ministers "to build the church of the future".
The dean of the school, Dianne Speed, stressed that the college community should not be concerned.
"Council members do not handle the college's funds," she said.
Beyond his financial management responsibilities, Mr MacCulloch was also in charge of a number of non-teaching areas including insurance, legal issues and risk management.
Kambala only learned that Mr MacCulloch had allegedly stolen the funds after it launched its own investigation into their disappearance in 2013.
He later resigned.
The school did not inform parents of the disappearance of the funds while the investigation was under way.
"Until now, this matter has had to remain strictly confidential to avoid prejudicing the investigation or recovery of the money," the school council's former president, Phillip Small, wrote in a letter to parents last June.
The school has completed a forensic audit of its accounts and successfully recovered $381,000.
"Our work to recover funds is not complete and we will continue our efforts to retrieve the remaining money," said Sally Herman, the president of Kambala's school council.
Mr MacCulloch has been contacted for comment. He is due to appear before Waverley Local Court on February 25.
