RONNIE Biggs became a household name when he was arrested and convicted for his involvement in the Great Train Robbery of 1963.

He was one of 15 men who held up the overnight Glasgow to London express and stole £2.6m – the equivalent of about £60m today.

Some of the culprits were never brought to trial. Others were sent down for 30 years.

Biggs was one of two men who escaped from London's Wandsworth prison in July 1965.

He fled to Paris, where he underwent plastic surgery.

In 1970, he moved to Adelaide, Australia, and then worked in set construction at Channel 9, in Melbourne, until a reporter recognised him and he fled to Brazil.

He was found in Rio de Janeiro in 1974 by a reporter but could not be extradited.

Biggs was able to live openly in Brazil, untouchable by the British authorities.

In 1981, he was kidnapped and smuggled into Barbados, from where, it was hoped, he would be deported.

But Biggs made use of legal loopholes to return to Brazil.

In 2001, with 28 years of his life sentence left to serve, he returned to England.

Since his reimprisonment, Biggs, now 79, has had a number of health scares, including two heart attacks.