One of Australia's oldest and most notorious criminals, 81-year-old Robert "Bertie" Kidd has vowed to fight a plan to deport him back to his native United Kingdom when he is released from prison next month.

In a move his family describe as "inhumane", the Australian Government has told Kidd he will be sent back to England, the country he left in 1948, when he was just 14 years old.

Kidd's former barrister and friend, Brian Bourke, describes him as "one of the most complete criminals" the country has ever produced.

A safe blower, armed robber, burglar, horse doper and standover man, Kidd was regarded as criminal royalty from the 1960s through to his jailing for a series of home invasions in the early 1990s.

Got a confidential news tip? Email ABC Investigations at investigations@abc.net.au For more sensitive information: Text message using the Signal phone app +61 436 369 072 No system is 100 per cent secure, but the Signal app uses end-to-end encryption and can protect your identity. Please read the terms and conditions.

One of his most audacious crimes, in the early 1980s, was dubbed the great plane robbery.

Kidd hid in a large wooden crate on a flight carrying $1 million in Reserve Bank notes. He was caught when the gloved hand of one of his accomplices was spotted closing the crate trapdoor at Rockhampton.

In 1997, he was jailed in Queensland for shooting a police officer during a botched robbery and was also suspected of two shooting murders in NSW.

In a letter from jail, Kidd said he realised the country was against him but said he would fight the deportation order "boots and all".

"I arrived here as a 10 Pound Pom and I have thought since I arrived that at 14 years old I am Australian," he wrote.

"Then at 18 years old I was enlisted into the first intake of national service, did my training at Puckapunyal, 13 platoon Donor Dog Company, and was prepared to go and fight for country.

"No-one has ever said to me, 'be careful they may send you back to London', I would have laughed at that, as I am an Aussie."

Ex-NSW assistant commissioner has no sympathy for Kidd

Former NSW assistant police commissioner Clive Small said he had no sympathy for Kidd.

"Bertie Kidd has for the whole of his life been a nasty, vicious, violent criminal," Mr Small said.

81-year-old Bertie Kidd in South Coast Correctional Centre. ( Supplied )

"He's in his early 80s now, I understand that, but I don't think he's held an honest job for one day.

"The people of NSW, Victoria and Queensland have paid for him every day of his life, as a result of his criminal activity or while he was being kept in jail so I'd hate to think that my money was now going to pay his pension."

Mr Small said Kidd had a record for safe robberies, armed robberies and home invasions, where he specifically targeted people known to hold large amounts of cash and jewellery.

"He's also suspected of having been involved in a couple of murders, never charged, and he's also been shot a couple of times," he said.

Police suspected Kidd was responsible to the murders of Sydney underworld figures Roy Thurgar and Des Lewis in the early 1990s.

Mr Small said the murder weapon, a sawn-off shotgun, found several years after the shootings belonged to Kidd but police were unable to prove that he pulled the trigger.

"Certainly by the late 1990s he was associated with some of the biggest drug dealers in NSW."

Forged cash starts Kidd's criminal career

Kidd first came to police attention in the late 1960s, when he was involved in the forgery of $10 bank notes. Veteran Melbourne lawyer, Brian Bourke represented him.

"There were millions of dollars forged and Bertie was tried separately but according to everybody, he was the ringleader," Mr Bourke said.

Kidd was acquitted after two expert witnesses disagreed over an important piece of evidence in the case.

"We became close in the sense that I was his barrister for years and years and years," Mr Bourke said.

"Bertie would have thought that he was the best safe cutter and safe blower in the country.

"He was a very tough bloke, but I never had any problems with him. We were friends, he'd ring me from time to time, even when we weren't going to court."

Mr Bourke said Kidd often worked alone.

"The good crims will tell you you never go into a big job with anyone else and that was Bertie's attitude to things," he said.

"He was a very thorough fella, if he'd done a decent break-in, a decent theft, he would have organised and known all about what was going on in connection to how he'd get out and that sort of thing."

Mr Bourke said he was acquitted many times and only did a couple of years in jail in all the time he was "active" in Victoria.

"But luck seemed to desert him when he went north," he said.

Kidd moved to Sydney in the 1970s and in 1997 was sentenced to 17 years in jail for his part in a series of violent home invasions and robberies in the exclusive Sydney suburbs of Manly and Burraneer Bay.