MUCH has been written and spoken about the Great Train Robbery in 1963 and those who participated in it , not least Ronnie Biggs ("Train robber Ronnie Biggs dies after 36 years spent on the run" and Obituary, The Herald, December 19).
In 1963 the judge sitting in the case took the view that it was necessary to eradicate "any romantic notions of daredevilry" and that to deal with it leniently would constitute a "positively evil thing". As a result seven of the defendants were given 30 years at a time when the normal sentence handed out for robbery was of the order of 12 years.
As Rebecca McQuillan reminded us ("Biggs had chutzpah but he was no hero", The Herald, December 19), Jack Mills, the train driver, was struck with an iron bar and never fully recovered. However, there were those at the time who maintained that such severe sentences conveyed the message that, if you were likely to receive a 30-year prison sentence for robbery, you might as well take a gun with you and, it has been observed, many criminals subsequently did .
In the last decade or so we have experienced many seriously damaging abuses in the financial sector and we, as citizens and taxpayers, are still living with the consequences today. These abuses included the ignoring of simple banking rules, the manipulation of interest rates, the misrepresentation of information to regulators. By these means and others unjustified bonuses were generated and taken. While such behaviour falls short of robbery with violence, the question remains - when, in addition to a couple of knighthoods being forfeited or surrendered, are we going to see some of those responsible looking out at the world from inside the walls of a prison?
Ian W Thomson,
38 Kirkintilloch Road,
Lenzie.
IT is disturbing that in some quarters Ronnie Biggs is almost seen as an anti-hero. The fact is he took part in a violent criminal act which the victim was never to recover from, and died seven years later a broken man. Biggs was a violent criminal who evaded justice for years and only came back to the UK to get free treatment from the taxpayer. Has this country fallen so far that it admires somebody like this?
Gordon Kennedy,
117 Simpson Square,
Perth.
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