Maybury Casino shooting gang jailed for 43 years

A GANG who plotted the murder of a businessman at an Edinburgh casino were jailed for a total of 43 years today.

The real reason why Tony Demarco, 63, was gunned down as he strolled towards his silver Mercedes remained a mystery – as did the identity of another man allegedly involved in the attempted hit.

At the High Court in Edinburgh, property wheeler-dealer Imran Sakur, 35, who hatched the plot, was sent to prison for 11 years.

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Jamie Robertson, 25, who pulled the trigger outside the Maybury Casino on the night of June 3 2008, was also jailed for 11 years.

Craig Kelbie, 35, who also calls himself Craig Wallace, was jailed for 11 years. An earlier trial heard that he was Sakur's "fixer".

Getaway driver Francis McGlone, 39, was given a ten year sentence because he had spent longer on remand and a jury's verdict cut down the length of time he had been involved in the plan.

All four had been found guilty of conspiracy to murder and attempted murder "whilst acting along with another."

The trial heard how scheming Sakur laughed and joked with his intended victim just minutes before the shooting plan was put into effect. A jury saw CCTV footage of them on the steps of the casino.

Sakur also pretended to chase the black-clad gunman who sprinted away after blasting Mr Demarco in the back of the head at close range.

Mr Demarco cried "Oh you b******" as he was shot after strolling to his distinctive silver Mercedes.

A trial heard he was lucky to be alive and a bullet which bounced off his skull is still lodged in his cheek.

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During the days leading up to the shooting, Sakur's orders had been relayed through Kelbie in an attempt to avoid being linked to the planned murder.

Detectives who set up "Operation Muster" to catch the would-be killer were left with two vital pieces of evidence.

A trawl through hours of security camera film showed McGlone's car driving around the casino area in a suspicious way, and even revealed the number-plate.

A pains-taking search also found a spent cartridge lying in the road.

After a dawn raid on his Paisley home three weeks later, McGlone named body-builder Robertson as the gunman in an "off the record" chat with detectives – comments he later tried to withdraw.

He also claimed he had been at home on the night of the shooting but a call to his mobile phone from his then-fiancee helped destroy his alibi.

Police raided another Paisley house where Robertson had been staying and found a box of cartridges hidden in the loft. They matched the 8mm shell case found at the Maybury and four were missing from the box of 50.

Advocate depute John Scullion, prosecuting, made the chilling allegation that Robertson had hung onto the ammunition in the hope of completing the contract killing, and made a further visit to Mr Demarco's home.

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Mr Scullion suggested there had also been a previous attempt to track down Mr Demarco when Robertson hung around the businessman's house in Danderhall, Midlothian. Robertson failed to spot Mr Demarco because he was not in his usual silver Merc.

Mobile phone records linked Robertson first to Kelbie – Robertson's girlfriend's brother – and then to Sakur, Kelbie's landlord.

Detectives confronted Sakur with a tip-off that there was a price of 20,000 on Mr Demarco's head, later dropped to 10,000 because the businessman survived and eventually part-paid in vodka rather than cash.

The motive was said to be debts owed to Mr Demarco.

"That is not me. I don't owe him a penny," replied Sakur. "ask him yourself." And during the trial he claimed it was another man, Shahid Aslam, who owed Mr Demarco hundreds of thousands of pounds and wanted him dead.

In court, Mr Demarco also repeatedly denied that high-rolling gambler Sakur – supporting a wife and four children as well as a girlfriend he set up in an up-market Edinburgh flat – owed him money. No other motive for the shooting was suggested.

Today, Sakur's defence QC Brian McConnachie said: "Despite the fact that we all sat for many days listening to evidence in this case from both sides it is probably still as much of a mystery now as when we started."

Re-living the painful ordeal in court, father-of-two Mr Demarco, said: "I don't know who shot me."

He told the trial: "As I went to open my car door I heard a bang and felt a thud behind my ear, my right ear."

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Mr Demarco said the bullet was still there. Medics told him that because it was so close to the carotid artery and important nerves it was too dangerous to try to remove it.

No weapon was ever recovered but police firearms expert Ronald Withers told the trial it was probably a converted starting pistol.

With the barrel bored out, a blank cartridge in the breech could be made to discharge a home-made bullet loaded into the muzzle, he said.

The pistol would not have the power of a "real" firearm.

Labourer McGlone of Lochfield Crescent, Paisley, bricklayer Robertson of Stock Street, Paisley, property developer Sakur of Elcho Drive, Broughty Ferry, Dundee, and unemployed panel beater Kelbie, of Saggar Street, Dundee, had all denied the charge against them.

Sentencing them, judge Lord Kinclaven said: "Conspiracy to assault and murder is an extremely serious matter particularly where it involves the discharge of a loaded weapon and the attempted murder of Mr Demarco in a public street."

The judge made an order extending the licence conditions of all the plotters for an extra four years, warning that they would return to prison if they offended after their release.

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