WELLINGTON - A man described by police as "a Chinese-New Zealander" was extradited from Hong Kong Wednesday in connection with one of New Zealand's most high profile theft cases and appeared in an Auckland court.

Hui Gao, 30, also known as Leo Gao, was charged with 16 counts of theft and two counts of money laundering when he appeared in the Manukau District Court.

Radio New Zealand reported that Gao appeared relaxed in court wearing a business suit and was remanded in custody to reappear in a Rotorua court on Friday.

Gao is accused of stealing 6.782 million NZ dollars ($5.24 million) from the Westpac Bank in 2009 after an overdraft of 10 million NZ dollars was mistakenly added to his bank account.

Police alleged he transferred the money into other accounts before he and his then-partner Kara Hurring then left New Zealand.

The error was discovered on May 5, and almost half of the money was recovered from New Zealand accounts, leaving an outstanding sum of 3.872 million NZ dollars unrecovered.

Gao was arrested in Hong Kong in September this year and was kept in custody there during extradition proceedings, said a statement from the New Zealand Police. 

He arrived back in the country with New Zealand detectives earlier Wednesday.

"New Zealand Police understand that the man did not contest the extradition," said the statement.

His return followed a two-and-a-half year police investigation.

Hurring, 32, was arrested on related charges when she re-entered New Zealand earlier this year. She is due to stand trial in 2012.

The officer in charge of the investigation, Detective Inspector Mark Loper, said the investigation remained "very active" and had involved a number of New Zealand Police staff from around New Zealand, in China and Hong Kong.

In the statement, Loper said he would like to thank the Hong Kong Police for their efforts, particularly over the past week.

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