Gavin ‘Capable Preston was set to face fresh court case before ambush

The slain notorious crime figure’s extensive criminal history can be revealed | READ THE FULL RAP SHEET HERE.

Gavin Preston arrives at the Supreme Court in Melbourne for the beginning of his murder trial in 2015. Picture: Hamish Blair

Slain gangland figure Gavin “Capable” Preston was facing a fresh criminal charge when he was gunned down over breakfast at a suburban cafe last Saturday.

The Australian can reveal the 51-year-old career criminal was due to face Sunshine Magistrates Court on December 22 for what sources described as a “sensitive” case after he was recently charged by police.

Graphic stills off a video of Gangland figure Gavin Preston being shot at a Keilor Cafe. Supplied.

Preston’s extensive rap sheet has also been obtained by The Australian, revealing that between 1991 and 2011 he was slapped with at least 38 offences for hoon driving, drink driving, assaulting police and damaging property among other crimes and was sentenced to serve 2½ years jail overall and fines totalling $7550 for the various crimes.

They are in addition to more serious crimes, such as defensive homicide for which he was jailed for more than a decade before his release in April this year.

Preston, who had his gangland nickname “Capable” tattooed on his neck, was executed while eating breakfast outside a Melbourne cafe on Saturday.

A figure, clad in black, was caught on CCTV running at Preston and his underworld friend Abbas Junior Maghnie, before he sprayed them with bullets. Preston died, Maghnie was seriously injured but survived.

His first serious brush with the law was as a teenager aged 19: he pleaded guilty to two charges of unlawful assault and wilfully damaging property in Melbourne’s western suburb of Sunshine in February 1991, and was sentenced to three months jail.

Months later he was convicted of two counts of unlawful assault and using “threatening words” in a public place in Melbourne, and was fined $1250.

In 1993, a number of serious charges against him were dismissed – including intentionally causing injury, recklessly causing injury, unlawful assault and wilfully damaging property.

He was fined $50 in 1995, after police were ordered to seize a drug of dependence and destroy instruments associated with it.

His next stint in prison was in 1998, when he was sentenced to three months jail for two charges of criminal damage with intent.

In 2002 Preston was fined $750 for driving 154km/h in a 100km/h zone while driving without his learner plates displayed or an experienced driver in the passenger seat. His licence was suspended for one month.

The notorious crime figure was caught speeding in a spate of four incidents in 2009, the first in January when 10km/h over the speed limit. Two days later, he was fined $200 for being 9km/h over the limit. Five days after that, he was again caught speeding in Highett and fined $142, before finally getting busted a week later and copping a $400 ticket.

Preston was first caught drink-driving in March 2009, blowing 0.081 in St Kilda, and without a licence. He was fined $1000 and disqualified from driving for the fourth time for driving dangerously between Elsternwick and Chelsea, both beachside suburbs in the city’s southeast. That year he was sentenced to another three months jail for assaulting police. In 2011, he was again caught drink-driving and speeding before giving a false name and address to police.