Shane Warne’s former personal assistant of more than eight years, Helen Nolan, is now the lucky winner of a $60,000 Mercedes-Benz in a recently drawn raffle. That is, a raffle run by the now-defunct Shane Warne Foundation, of which she was also the former general manager, Fairfaxreports.
The raffle was held as part of a fundraising swim across the English Channel by former AFL footballer Campbell Brown, and some are suggesting that the outcome appears more questionable than the contents of Warnie's outgoing DMs. The foundation has been under scrutiny after it was shut down as part of a Victorian government probe into its financial and reporting practices. Nolan served as general manager for three years, between 2006 and 2009.
The organization allegedly raised $1.8m over the 2011 to 2013 period, but only donated 16 cents of each dollar to charitable causes. Warne’s brother Jason’s salary, and significant annual losses due to a large portion of cash being spent on catering and alcohol also came into question. All in all, Warnie's "charity" seemed to be doing a hell of a lot for those people running it, and not that much for anyone else.
Terms and conditions of the raffle were conveniently not available, but a spokesman for the foundation said there was nothing untoward about the drawing. There is nothing to suggest any laws were broken, and regulations in Victoria only prevent current employees from entering raffles – but the McGrath Foundation has banned this, along with any entries from immediate family.
“The raffle was conducted according to necessary permits. The drawing of the raffle was filmed for compliance purposes by Triple M staff at Triple M studios in Melbourne in full view of staff and others. This footage was available online for public viewing following this,” the spokesman said. Well, that settles it. Back to being transfixed by Warnie's remarkably botoxed face chomping down on all manner of disgusting insects on our TV every night,we guess.
