Ozzy criminal Bertie is set to be deported to UK...at the expense of the UK tax payer.

One of Australia's most notorious criminals is set to be released from prison and deported to Britain - almost 70 years after he left.

Robert 'Bertie' Kidd, who is 83 and regarded as Australian 'criminal royalty', is due to be freed in August, but is expected to be released on parole after a hearing on Thursday.

In a criminal career spanning 60 years, the convicted armed robber is suspected of carrying out two murders but never charged and has been shot a couple of times.

He is currently serving time for a series of savage home invasions in Sydney.

"Bertie Kidd has for the whole of his life been a nasty, vicious, violent criminal," former New South Wales assistant police commissioner Clive Small said.

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

A younger Robert 'Bertie' Kidd. Pic: ABC
Image Caption:
Kidd's criminal career spans six decades. Pic: ABC
Kidd, who has spent most of his life behind bars in maximum security prisons, has been told by the Australian government that he will be removed from the country after his latest prison stint.

The government plans to send Kidd back to Britain, where he was born but left in 1948 when he was 14 as one of the so-called 'Ten Pound Poms' - British people who were encouraged to emigrate to Australasia for £10 after World War Two.

Currently at the end of an 11-year prison term for a string of violent armed robberies and burglaries, Kidd has fought against his deportation - something his family has described as "INHUMANE".