Brazil can keep Biggs, says Slipper of the Yard

The former Scotland Yard detective who led the hunt to bring Ronnie Biggs back to Britain says the fugitive Great Train Robber should stay in Brazil.

Jack Slipper, former chief of the Flying Squad, said: "I would not lose a minute's sleep whether he came back or not. I personally would not bring him back. The prisons are full and he looks like he'd go straight on the NHS."

Mr Slipper was speaking after the Home Office confirmed that the final exchange of legal documents to seal the extradition treaty between Brazil, where Biggs, 68, has lived for the past 27 years, and Britain is "imminent". It is thought that the Home Secretary, Jack Straw, will immediately request Bigg's extradition and he may be flown back within a fortnight.

But Mr Slipper, now 73, who was in charge of the police operation that brought Biggs and the train robbery gang to justice, said: "He would probably be better off here than out there. He has not been living it up in Brazil."