Veteran detective Jim Marshall allowed himself a wry smile as he watched Ronnie Biggs stepping off a jet and into the arms of a law.

The former head of Sussex CID recalled how members of the gang carried out a "practice" raid on a train in Sussex just weeks before the actual Great Train Robbery in 1963.

Mr Marshall, who was made an MBE last year and lives in Hove, said several members of the gang are believed to have held up a train in Patcham tunnel on the London-to-Brighton line.

He also believes the plans for the Patcham raid were drawn up in Brighton library, where the gang also learned how to tamper with the automatic signal system, enabling them to turn a railway signal red and stop a train.

This proved vital in the Great Train Robbery, when £2.6 million was stolen from a Glasgow-to-London mail train, which was a record haul at the time.

Jack Mills, driver of the train, died a few years after being coshed in the robbery.

The 15-strong gang was eventually rounded up and Biggs was convicted and sentenced to 30 years behind bars.

But he escaped after just 15 months of his term by scaling a 25ft wall at Wandsworth prison in south London.

He spent time in London and Sydney as a fugitive before travelling through Argentina and Bolivia to Brazil.

Facing extradition, he discovered his girlfriend, 19-year-old stripper Raimunda de Castro, was pregnant and under Brazilian law Biggs could not be deported if he was a father.

Mr Marshall said Biggs should be treated "exactly the same as every other criminal" following his return to Britain this week.

He said: "They could not stop him coming back. There has been a lot on the TV and radio about Biggs but nobody seems to be talking about the driver of the train who died afterwards.

"I think the driver's family would be quite upset about this. The majority of people are saying he is coming back to take advantage of the NHS.

"It does not matter who he is. He must serve his time in jail. It would be ridiculous if he was allowed to spend the rest of his days with his family.

"He was convicted of a very serious crime and then he escaped from prison which is a very serious offence. I have no sympathy at all with Biggs and justice has to be done. I also didn't like the way the Sun newspaper has leapt on the back of it."

Biggs used a rented house in Sussex as a temporary bolthole following his dramatic escape from jail.

In his autobiography Odd Man Out, Biggs remembered spending most of his time at the three-bedroom detached holiday home in Bognor listening to the radio.

During his stay Biggs was secretly reunited with his wife, Charmain, and their children, who were staying at a caravan site at Hastings.

Biggs, who underwent plastic surgery abroad after leaving Bognor, said he learned the tricks of his criminal trade while on remand at Lewes prison in his youth.

He said: "It was there that the young lags met the old lags and learned how things were done."

Ron Leslie, who lives in a nursing home in Hastings, helped Biggs escape from jail.

He said: "I do not feel Biggs is coming back because he feels sorry for what he has done or anything like that. I can only think he is coming back to die. I was shocked to learn he was planning to come back and thought he must have lost his mind to consider it."

We can also reveal that another member of the gang lived in Hastings under an assumed name for three years.

James White, who was caught three years after the raid, was sentenced to 18 years in jail.

He was released on parole in 1975 after serving nine years and he and his wife set up home in a flat in Chowns Hill, taking a new identity. He has since moved.