‘Capable’ of anything, he wanted to be a faceless worker on a tram. But old habits die hard

To say Gavin Preston had a long list of enemies is a criminal understatement.

His resume was broad and lengthy, with references all over Melbourne’s underworld that could attest to his brutality. He was considered “Capable” of anything, so recently had that criminal nickname tattooed on his neck.

Gavin Preston, pictured outside the Supreme Court in August 2015, was shot dead on Saturday. Credit: Fairfax Photographic

He was the prime suspect in the failed hit on former Bandidos enforcer Toby Mitchell, was accused of plotting to kill Mick Gatto, formed his own prison gang and had escalating and violent feuds with some of the city’s most notorious criminals.

Before his murder outside a Keilor Village cafe on Saturday morning, the 50-year-old survived a prison stabbing and an attempt by a rival to blow up his car.

It would surprise no one that just months after being released from jail, the underworld hardman was on the wrong end of gunfire.

Preston was released from prison in April after serving nearly all of an 11-year jail term for shooting two drug dealers, killing one of them.

In the months before his release, he was claiming he planned to leave his life of violence behind. But no one really believed him.

The judge who jailed Preston described the shootings as “disturbingly brutal”.

Gavin Preston, with his nickname “Capable” tattooed on his neck.Credit: Facebook

In the first, Preston was enlisted to help recover a $2500 drug debt in January 2012. The man was unarmed and Preston shot him “without provocation or threat”.

“He was in obvious distress and was completely at your mercy,” Supreme Court Justice Cameron Macaulay said at Preston’s 2015 sentence hearing. “You fired several times. After the first shot, while he was in agony and terror, you simply shot him again. He owed you nothing. You were doing this purely for money.”

In February 2012, Preston claimed he went unarmed to the North Melbourne apartment of Adam Khoury to discuss threats and negotiate a truce with the drug dealer’s associate, Christopher “Badness” Binse.

Binse, a notorious criminal, was determined to avenge his friend Mitchell’s shooting outside Doherty’s Gym in Brunswick in November 2011, by detonating explosives under Preston’s car.

Binse had stalked Preston after the Mitchell shooting, placed a tracking device on his car and took photographs of Preston’s partner.

Preston claimed to police that Khoury panicked during the encounter and pulled a gun before the pair wrestled, and Preston shot the drug dealer three times, including at close range to the head.

At the time, Preston was under police surveillance, but officers were sent home for the night half an hour before Khoury was killed.

Preston pleaded guilty to defensive homicide and recklessly causing serious injury over the two shootings.

Preston’s rise to criminal infamy began at an early age and was swift.

He was raised in Sunshine, the eldest of two brothers. His father worked in the railways and his mother stayed home with her boys. He left school in year 11, but by then was already “associated with various characters who have become known in Melbourne criminal circles”, Macaulay detailed in 2015.

Mick Gatto last year. Preston was previously accused of plotting to kill the gangland figure.Credit: Eddie Jim

Preston notched his first conviction at age 18 for unlawful assault and property damage. A year later, he was jailed for the first time for intentionally or recklessly causing serious injury.

That was the first of a string of sentences for assaults, armed robbery, car theft, aggravated burglary, firearm possession and drug dealing.

It was after his release from jail in 2007 that Preston first attempted to turn his life around. He lived with his girlfriend, got a full-time job, obtained qualifications in construction and kept himself out of trouble.

Preston once told his lawyer he enjoyed the responsibility of work and he “became like one of the people on the tram” – an ordinary person.

Gavin Preston (right) with his partner Lauran Howe.Credit: Facebook

But in 2011, Preston’s younger brother died of a heroin overdose, and it plunged him into despair and off the rails.

Old habits die hard.

Preston was one of the prime suspects, along with Nabil Maghnie, in the near-fatal shooting of Mitchell. Neither was charged.

Months later, police intercepted Maghnie and Preston with a loaded gun ahead of an alleged plan to murder Gatto, for reasons that remain unclear. The charges over the plot were later dropped.

Toby Mitchell leaves court last year. Preston was suspected of shooting the former Bandido in 2011.Credit: Jason South

Maghnie was shot dead in an Epping street in January 2020, a crime that remains unsolved.

In early December 2011, Preston was arrested for possessing a firearm and spent a few weeks in prison on remand. When he was released just after Christmas, he heard rumours about threats to his life and became anxious and paranoid.

During his 2015 sentence hearing, the judge said that because of Preston’s criminal allegiances, history of violence and “prisoner interaction dynamics”, he spent most of his time behind bars in protective custody.

While in Barwon Prison as he awaited sentence, Preston became involved in a brutal feud with former friend Matthew Johnson, head of the jail gang Prisoners of War. Johnson was in jail for murdering crime boss Carl Williams.

Nabil Maghnie outside court in 2019. He was shot dead in 2020.Credit: Chris Hopkins

In 2014, five inmates armed with knives, metal bars and spikes stabbed Preston more than 20 times. He refused to provide a statement against his assailants.

Video of the assault was later published on YouTube by people purporting to represent Prisoners of War.

Macaulay, the judge who jailed Preston over the shootings, said his criminal history suggested “a near-impenetrable barrier to acceptance of the idea that you might be rehabilitated from violent crime”.

Once, when he attempted to go straight, Preston said he feared looking like a fool in the workplace. Now he’s dead and there won’t be many tears shed.

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