Underworld rivalries: Chris ‘Badness’ Binse vs Gavin Preston
A showdown between Chris “Badness” Binse and Gavin “Capable” Preston seemed inevitable once the two Sunshine jailbirds were back on the streets.
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Following the shooting death of Gavin Preston, we take a look back at his gangland rivalry with one of Australia's weirdest criminals, Christopher Binse.
The tough kids of Sunshine don’t get any rougher than these two jailbirds.
The self anointed “Badness”, Chris Binse, is fond of a beret and a bit of armed robbery.
Regarded as one of Australia’s “weirdest’’ criminals, Binse is an incorrigible escapee having broken out of prisons in Victoria and New South Wales.
The stick-up man, now aged 51, has spent almost 36 of the past 38 years in prison.
He, and his mother, are outspoken critics of the conditions in which he has been detained, including being shackled while in custody.
Binse is also the modern titleholder of a miserable record.
He is thought to have spent more time in isolation than any other Australian prisoner, which is odd considering he is not as dangerous as many other inmates.
But despite the enormous time he has spent behind b
ars since his teens, Binse has an adversary — Gavin “Capable’’ Preston.
Preston, who has the tattoo “Capable” emblazoned across his stomach, is a heavyweight criminal.
Like Binse, Preston is a Sunshine boy who was attracted to the thrill of crime. But unlike Binse, he has graduated to triggerman.
His last stint as a free man earned him a new nickname in police circles: ‘‘Wrecking Ball’’.
What led to the antagonistic history between Binse and Preston is not well documented.
Their feud is believed to have begun in 2006, long after they left the streets of Sunshine.
Binse was on remand over weapons, assault and drugs charges when he was bashed by a group of inmates.
The attack followed a fallout between the pair and Binse concluded Preston was behind it.
During Binse’s next stint out of prison, in 2008, he was paranoid he was going to be targeted by Preston’s gang.
In 2011, he was arrested by police carrying multiple guns, drugs and fake identities.
Prison authorities even placed Binse in protection over threats to his life.
But whatever sparked the feud years earlier, a showdown seemed inevitable when both were back on the streets in late 2011.
Binse had been told upon his release in September that year Preston was set to kill him and others, including outlaw bikie Toby Mitchell.
Police would become aware of an alleged “hit list’’, which would later be noted in the diary of then Assistant Commissioner Graham Ashton.
Binse’s fears intensified after he was attacked by a group of men leading to a hospital stay.
He chose to prematurely discharge himself despite his injuries.
Then, on November 28, 2011, Mitchell was ambushed and shot repeatedly outside Doherty’s Gym in Brunswick by two assailants.
Binse, a mate of Mitchell’s, blamed Preston for the hit.
So did police.
Whether Preston was involved or not, he became a target.
As police worked to get Preston off the streets, Binse plotted to wipe him off the earth.
Over several weeks in early 2012, Binse stalked Preston, even placing a primitive tracking device on his car and saving a photograph of his girlfriend to his phone.
Oddly, Binse’s vehicle was outside Preston’s address when Special Operations Group police raided the southeast Melbourne property.
They found a gun inside the four-wheel-drive, indicating he had made a quick exit on foot.
What Binse was up to did not result in his immediate arrest, but it’s safe to say he wasn’t there so he and Preston could share a ride to work in the carpool lane.
It would later emerge Binse wanted to blow up Preston’s car, presumably with his foe in it.
Preston would be arrested twice in 2012 and remains in prison, as does Binse.
Binse’s arrest, however, stole the headlines.
Fuelled by the drug ice and holding a woman captive inside a house, Binse held off police during a 44-hour siege in East Keilor in May, 2013.
Despite knowing after his arrest he was about to go to prison for a decade or more for a string of offences, he turned his mind to Preston and then looked for TV cameras.
As he sat cuffed in the back seat of a Commodore between two detectives Binse mouthed the words “I’m coming for you Gavin. Gavin, I’m coming for you’’ to the cameras outside Melbourne’s Custody Centre.
The pair, since being jailed, have not clashed.
Binse, who likes to have the last word, has made his feelings about Preston clear via a conduit who has posted online taunts.
Preston, conversely, has sought peace through religion.
This article was originally published in February 2021.
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