Gavin ‘Capable’ Preston: Getaway car and assailants waited hours to attack

Attackers who carried out a daylight hit on Gavin ‘Capable’ Preston are believed to have been waiting near the location of his final meal for three hours.

Graphic stills off a video of gangland figure Gavin Preston being shot at a Keilor cafe. Picture: Supplied

The black Audi used by two assailants to flee after gunning down ­notorious crime figure Gavin “Capable” Preston at a suburban Melbourne cafe is believed to have been parked opposite the site of the attack for three hours before the ambush, according to a worker at a nearby business.

The staff member who declined to be named told The Australian CCTV captured the Audi – which was later found by police, reportedly partially burnt out – sitting in the carpark outside the Keilor Hotel located opposite Sweet Lulus cafe in Melbourne's north west at 7am on Saturday.

Preston was sitting outside eating breakfast, reportedly with Abbas Junior Maghnie, at 10.20am when a figure clad in black ran toward them, spraying the pair with bullets.

“The black Audi they were in entered the carpark at 7am. So they have been waiting for over three hours until they made the move,” the worker said. “They were parked down the end of this carpark. They did a loop. Then they went back out and that’s when the shooting happened.”

Gavin Preston in prison.

It likely means the two assailants, who police are still looking for, knew when and where Preston was going to be.

The Herald Sun reported a black Audi Q5 was partially burnt out and dumped on Blair Court, a residential street about 1km from the scene of the shooting.

In the hours after the attack on Saturday, Victoria Police crime command acting superintendent Mark Hatt could not say if the car was incinerated but did say an Audi SUV was dumped after the attack. As well, a second car – a black Volkswagen Polo – was found about 4km away along Cadiz Place.

Chilling CCTV footage of the brazen daylight attack showed Preston and Mr Maghnie sitting at a table outside on Saturday morning, seemingly unaware they were in danger.

Seconds later, a figure clad in black jumped out of the Audi and fired bullets towards them. Mr Maghnie appeared to spot the figure on approach and dived at the ground, although he did not avoid being shot.

Preston did not have time to react, and was shot at close range. He sunk into his chair, before collapsing to the ground.

Terrified patrons at the cafe who sat beside the underworld figures ducked under their tables for cover as the shooting unfolded, but no one else was injured.

Preston’s criminal history is lengthy, and though he is a notorious figure in Melbourne’s underworld, at the height of the city’s gangland wars between 1998 and 2006 – which left more than 30 crime figures dead – he spent many years behind bars.

In his sentencing remarks for Preston’s most recent conviction, an 11-year jail term for shooting two drug dealers in related attacks on separate occasions in 2012, Victorian Supreme Court justice Cameron Macaulay summarised Preston’s criminal history.

“Apparently, you became involved in criminal activity from a young age including acts of violence which developed further into more serious offending. Your adult criminal history bears this out,” Justice Macaulay said.

Preston was jailed at 18 in 1991 for unlawful assault and wilfully damaging property. A year later, he was convicted of several charges of intentionally or recklessly causing serious injury.

In 1996, Preston was jailed again, this time for eight years and eight months with a non-parole period of six years for armed robbery and theft of a motor vehicle.

He was charged for further serious crimes in 1997, 1998 and 1999 including aggravated burglary and criminal damage.

In 2004, Preston landed himself in a NSW prison after he was convicted of possessing a loaded firearm in a public place, receiving stolen property and dealing drugs.