Manchester City have been awarded more than £24,000 in compensation after a veteran paramedic — once trusted with privileged access across the Etihad Stadium — admitted running a years-long scheme in which club equipment, memorabilia and players’ items were stolen and sold online.
David McNally, 47, spent over two decades with the North West Ambulance Service and held regular matchday duties at the Etihad for around ten years.
His role put him at the heart of the club’s operations on game days. But the same access also enabled a four-year pattern of theft that a judge previously described as “breathtakingly brazen”.
David McNally had already avoided prison in March, receiving a suspended sentence after admitting a single count of theft.
But his return to Manchester Crown Court for a Proceeds of Crime hearing has resulted in a substantial repayment order.
The Judge, Recorder Jeremy Lasker ruled that McNally must reimburse the club £24,676.35, with a warning that failure to do so within three months will lead to a six-month jail term.
The court was told that the disgraced medic used his ID credentials to move freely around the stadium and training areas, at times acting as the senior paramedic on duty.
That same freedom made it easier to remove items ranging from boots and kit bags to specialist equipment and even pieces of high-value memorabilia. Prosecutors said every part of the football operation — from academy squads to the women’s and men’s teams — had been affected.
According to Manchester Evening News, the club’s internal inquiry began after what appeared to be a minor incident in February 2023, when a tracksuit disappeared from the women’s area of the stadium.
But when CCTV footage placed McNally inside the changing rooms before heading to his car with an orange drinks container, the alarm was raised. Once police became involved, a much larger pattern of wrongdoing emerged.
Officers carried out a search of McNally’s Lancashire home in Helmshore, uncovering 108 items linked to Manchester City.
These included holdalls filled with club training wear, footballs, boots, medical supplies and pieces of clothing marked with City branding.
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Investigators also found evidence that an eBay account controlled by David McNally had been used to sell hundreds more items that were no longer recoverable.
According to the prosecution, the overall theft amounted to around £75,000, with at least £24,000 worth of stock successfully sold online.
Some of the most valuable items included eight signed first-team shirts valued at £1,000 each, a signed banner from the 2021/22 Champions League campaign, and “personalised football boots” created for Sergio Agüero.
The Crown argued that the thefts, which spanned from June 2019 to May 2023, were “clearly organised”, beginning with small items before evolving into a deliberate and sustained operation.
For a decade, David McNally had been regarded as a reliable presence at the Etihad, part of the broader network of medical staff responsible for emergency support during matches.
His access placed him in close proximity to players, coaching staff and areas of the stadium ordinarily off-limits to non-club personnel.
According to the earlier sentencing hearing, he was at times the most senior paramedic on duty, an arrangement that gave him free movement “all over the club”.
