Gambling addict given jail sentence

A GAMBLING addict who claimed he engineered a £1 million fraud to pay off loan sharks after they shot his father in the head has been jailed for five years and four months.

Tony Demarco, 64, survived after being blasted at point blank range outside the city's Gala Maybury Casino on June 3, 2008 and sat stone-faced in court as son Antony Demarco, 38, was sentenced for the scam yesterday.

The fraud, launched only weeks after the hit on sandwich shop owner Mr Demarco, was a desperate bid by Demarco Jnr to settle his massive online poker debts, the High Court in Edinburgh heard.

But even after Demarco had paid off 260,000 to illegal money lenders he continued to gamble, said defence solicitor advocate John Scott.

Jailing Demarco Judge Lady Smith said: "What happened to your father was terrible but it need never have happened."