Deadline: Gavin ‘Capable’ Preston happy to show curious friend what it was like to be shot

When a friend at a party asked what it felt like to be shot, Gavin “Capable” Preston made sure he didn’t miss out on an underworld right of passage.

Andrew Rule and Mark Buttler with the latest scallywag scuttlebutt.

Dampener on the evening

Gavin Preston’s demise is proof that a week is a long time in crime as well as in politics — but especially in crime politics, which is of the blowtorch to the belly type.

Seven days ago, Deadline editors were picking words carefully to minimise the likelihood that Preston, the notorious gunman and bash artist, would have an excuse to lose his temper.

Suddenly, the man with the nickname CAPABLE tattooed around his neck in huge letters isn’t capable of retaliation any more.

Which means Deadline can finally share some scuttlebutt about one of his lesser-known shootings.

It came as a lively group relaxed one evening at a suburban Melbourne house. The story goes that one of the group pondered what it would feel like to be shot.

We are told Preston pulled out a gun and let the inquisitive one know exactly what it felt like by putting a bullet in his leg.

One of the group is said to have pondered what it would feel like to be shot.

This is not the first time such a thing has happened in criminal circles.

The late and unlamented multiple killer Rodney “Duke” Collins, a.k.a. Rodney Earl, was at a barbecue in the inner north when he took exception to a joke told by an Irish visitor. Collins shot the unfortunate Irishman, who survived for some time but eventually died.

And there’s more. Impeccable sources long ago assured Deadline that at an underground meeting of black market gun dealers and buyers in Melbourne years ago, one potential buyer had the bad manners to criticise the hitting power of a particular handgun.

The seller picked up the weapon in question and shot the critic in the leg.

End of argument.

Unfinished business by incapable crooks

Attention to detail is crucial in any job and the contract killing business is no exception.

Those who killed Gavin Preston and wounded Abbas Junior Maghnie in that Keilor cafe ambush last weekend could be the latest to find out that the job isn’t over when the gun smoke clears.

They carried out their ruthless work with great efficiency, although the shooting obviously endangered innocent members of the public at Sweet Lulu’s cafe.

The shooters were gone within seconds and dumped their stolen Audi Q5 in nearby Blair Court. That’s when things started going wrong.

One of the pair tried to torch the vehicle but set his hand on fire in the process.

It seems that the expected destruction of the Audi (and any evidence in it) was thwarted by an alert local quick on the draw with a garden hose.

Given that the bad guys tried to burn the car, they clearly thought it contained forensic evidence linking them to the crime. If the forensics comes back to bite them, they won’t be the first.

Preston’s killer joins a long list of bungling crooks who failed to torch their getaway car. Picture: David Crosling

There are a slew of hit crews who finished off their victim but not their wheels.

Those who sprayed Prahran’s Love Machine nightclub in 2019, killing two people, dumped their vehicle a few kilometres away.

Someone with room temperature IQ was later sent to torch the car but got confused and incinerated a similar vehicle parked across the street.

That left the car which had been used in the crime untouched. Bad for shooters, ideal for the police.

Ironically, it was Abbas Junior Maghnie’s little brother Jacob Elliot who pulled the trigger at the Love Machine and is now doing a long prison stretch.

Later that year, Mongols Aaron Ong and Josh Rider left themselves badly exposed after murdering fruiterer Paul Virgona as he drove to work in the small hours.

The pair used a Mercedes-Benz to follow Virgona’s van. They torched the Benz after the shooting and switched to a VW Amarok utility.

But their plan came apart when alert police chased the ute, forcing the killers to abandon it in a desperate hurry before they could set it alight. This, of course, preserved vital evidence implicating them.

Gavin Preston’s enemy George Marrogi also learned the hard way about evidence and getaway cars. He used a Holden Commodore to stage a hit on Kadir Ors at Campbellfield Plaza in 2016 but things got messy when a mate of Ors gave chase.

Marrogi pulled over and hurriedly ripped open an ammunition box to reload his pistol before firing at his pursuer.

After shaking off the other car, he realised his own was badly damaged and was forced to abandon it in Broadmeadows, losing any chance to incinerate it.

That may have worked out but for a small scrap of cardboard that had fallen from the ammo packet as he ripped it open.

Forensic examination later found the cardboard carried Marrogi’s DNA, which later helped nail his conviction.

Last year’s attempted hit on Sam “The Punisher” Abdulrahim was farcical.

Those involved bought petrol cans and filled them with fuel ready to torch their Mazda SUV after shooting Abdulrahim at his cousin’s funeral in Fawkner.

After wounding but failing to kill Abdulrahim, the amateurish hit team drove off in a panic and crashed the Mazda into a fire hydrant and a pole on Box Forest Rd. They then had to bolt, ruining their chance of destroying the SUV and the prints or DNA in it.

It all looks so much easier in action films.

Too soon?

Deadline makes no judgement on this item, recently spotted on a restaurant menu in Perth.

An item recently spotted on a menu at a Perth restaurant.

Where there’s smoke

He’s a pretty handy sportsman with the additional profile of doing a good stretch in prison.

While our man has denied ever being involved in any criminal shenanigans, the word is that he’s using his considerable powers of persuasion around town.

The work is on behalf of underworld figures linked to that rapidly expanding and volatile business sector, the illicit tobacco industry.