The Salvation Army, a well-known charity for the homeless has recently come under fire for it’s handling of some donated Paul McCartney concert tickets.
Major Brendan Nottle, the leader of the Salvation Army is in hot water after it was revealed that his daughter was gifted some of the donated Paul McCartney concert tickets that were meant for the homeless.
Chris McDonald donated seven concert tickets so the homeless could enjoy the show too. The tickets were for the show on December 5th.
According to Nottle, four hours before the concert two of the homeless ticket holders returned them to the salvos in good faith because they could not attend.
“At the last minute, two tickets were returned and (a manager) made the decision to give them to my daughter. It had absolutely had nothing to do with me,” he told 3AW.
“The manager did the ring around of other homeless people and volunteer staff and wasn’t able to move them because it was so late.”
Nottle claims his daughter accepted the tickets so she could “look out for” the other five homeless people at the concert and make them feel at ease.
Nottle defended his daughter stating that she shouldn’t be blamed for the actions of others.
“The tragic thing is the daughter that’s involved is one of the most giving people I know,” he said.
“I just want to say [to everyone], in this work you don’t do this stuff for the kickbacks. We get it wrong sometimes, I get why it happened.”
He added that concert tickets were an inappropriate donation for homeless people.
“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 said.
“We are not Ticketmaster, we are not concert promoters, we don’t do that stuff and we get it wrong sometimes, you know.”
Nottle concedes the situation should have been handled better and the Salvation Army will “absolutely learn from this”.
The Salvation Army has said they will reimburse Mr McDonald for all seven tickets and be more selective when processing donations.