Ronnie Biggs makes crime pay. With T-shirts

Banged up back in Blighty but online merchandising continues

The Great Train robber Ronnie Biggs, who arrived back in the UK four days ago after 36 years on the run, is trying to make ends meet by selling autographed T-shirts, baseball caps and photographs off his Web site.

Mr Biggs, 71, set up the Web site last year in the hope of getting his version of events to a wider audience and of course make some money because expensive medical bills were crippling him. Finally, Biggs, after a third stroke, returned to the UK - where he was instantly arrested and jailed - in order to benefit from free NHS healthcare.

The site, www.ronniebiggs.com, contains a history of Ronnie, a guide to Rio de Janeiro and Biggsy's Boutique. Here you can buy a baseball cap with a ronniebiggs.com logo for $20, a "I know someone who went to Brazil and met Ronnie Biggs… honest!" T-shirt for $30 or a photo of Ronnie holding his book and wearing a Brazilian football shirt for $25.

And for just $5, Ronnie will sign any of the above too.

Hopefully before he left for the UK, he managed to sign a few hundred of each or he may find this small revenue stream drying up. What with being in jail an' all.

Ronnie Biggs became internationally renowned when in 1963, as one of 16 men, he managed to rob a Royal Mail train and flee with £2.6 million - the biggest ever haul at the time. Caught and sentenced to 30 years, Ronnie then broke out of a maximum security prison in London after serving just 15 months. He underwent plastic surgery, fled to Australia and then to Brazil in 1970 where he has remained until four days ago.

There was even controversy over Ronnie's acquisition of the RonnieBiggs.com domain name. It was registered by serial cybersquatter John Pepin and put up for sale for £5,000. John then received a phone call from Ronnie's son Mike who asked if John would like to make a gift of the name to Mr Biggs. John agreed. ®

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