If you’re in the business of helping those less fortunate than you, then it’s understandable that people would react poorly at the thought of you misappropriating charitable donations. That’s the sort of thing that the Salvation Army’s Major Brendan Nottle is under fire for following a Paul McCartney ticket giveaway earlier this month.
As Fairfax reports, longtime fan of The Beatles, Chris McDonald, donated seven tickets to the Salvation Army for Paul McCartney’s sold-out show at AAMI Park, in Melbourne on December 5th.
However, when Chris McDonald turned up at the gig himself, he was surprised to see that two of the tickets were being used by Ash Nottle, the daughter of the Salvation Army’s Major Brendan Nottle and her partner.
In an interview with 3AW’s Tony Jones today, Brendan Nottle explained that the tickets had initially been distributed, but two tickets had been returned at the last minute, leaving the Salvation Army unable to find recipients for them in time.
“In the end there was two tickets handed back at the last minute,” he explained. “The tragic thing is the daughter that’s involved is one of the most giving people I know.”
“I just want to say Tony, in this work you don’t do this stuff for the kick backs,” he continued. “We get it wrong sometimes, I get why it happened.”
According to News Corp, Major Nottle explained that his daughter had been given the tickets under the premise that she would be there to “look out for” the homeless people in attendance.
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“When you’re working with homeless people, to be blunt, do homeless people need tickets to Paul McCartney or do they need a roof over their head?”, he explained.
“We are not Ticketmaster, we are not concert promoters, we don’t do that stuff and we get it wrong sometimes, you know.”
The Salvation Army has reportedly refunded the cost of the tickets to Chris McDonald.
Check out Paul McCartney and Wings’ ‘Band On The Run’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBX2dySWGew
