Emergency passport for fugitive Biggs

The way was paved for train robber Ronnie Biggs to return to Britain after the Government issued him with an emergency passport.

The passport will allow the Great Train Robber to make a single journey back to the UK, the Foreign Office said yesterday.

Foreign Secretary Robin Cook also intervened to check there would be no delays in issuing the documentation which will allow Biggs, 71, to return to Britain from Brazil to face justice.

A private plane sent by The Sun newspaper arrived in Rio yesterday with the aim of picking him up and returning him to Britain.

Police in Brazil were reported as saying the plane would leave today.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: ‘‘I can confirm Ronnie Biggs has been issued with an emergency passport.

‘‘I can also confirm that The Sun called the Foreign Office to see if there was going to be a delay and the Foreign Secretary asked officials to call our Consul General in Rio to see whether a delay was likely.

‘‘Clearly if someone is wanted for questioning here and wants to come back and hand themselves in we would want to ensure there was no delay, and in the event there was no delay in issuing the emergency passport.’’

Family friend Kevin Crace said Biggs was ‘‘very excited’’ about the prospect of coming back to Britain and his return was ‘‘imminent’’.

He said he had spoken to Biggs’ son Michael, 26, who had told him that ‘‘the old Biggs sparkle had appeared in his eye’’.

An answerphone message at Biggs’ Rio home said he would be ‘‘away until the 12th’’ before directing messages to his official website.

The Sun said it had flown Biggs’ fellow great train robber Bruce Reynolds out to Rio as part of a mission to return him to British justice.

Also on board was a curry, a six-pack of beer and a jar of Marmite for Biggs.

The ailing robber has vowed to return from exile ‘‘at the earliest opportunity’’ after spending more than 35 years on the run.

His probable return has sparked a row over what should happen if and when he arrives back in the country.

Shadow home secretary Ann Widdecombe called for a ‘‘hard-headed’’ attitude towards him, saying he should spend the rest of his life behind bars.

But friends said the authorities should treat him with compassion as he was in poor health following his third stroke and was now unable to speak.

Drinkers in Margate where Biggs has indicated he wishes to ‘‘enjoy a pint of bitter like a true Englishman’’ said they would be queuing up to buy him a drink.

News of the likely return came after Biggs sent an e-mail to the head of the Flying Squad, Detective Chief Superintendent John Coles, the officer in overall charge of the Met’s Serious and Organised Crime Group.

Biggs still has 28 years to serve of a 30-year sentence for his part in the 1963 robbery.

He is hoping, because of his health, that he will be put in a jail hospital while the authorities decide what to do with him.

There have been suggestions that he has run out of money and wants to return home to get free medical treatment on the NHS.

But Mr Straw said any individual unlawfully at large from prison was liable to immediate rearrest and return to prison as soon as it came to the notice of the police.

Biggs’ lawyer in Brazil, Wellington Mousinho, said the train robber was prepared to return to Britain regardless of whether he has to go to jail or not.