Mr Dugard, a highly respected police photographer who played a key role in the setting up of the Covert Intelligence Branch, was heavily involved in the hunt for Biggs after he jumped over the wall at Wandsworth Prison in 1965.

He said police concentrated their surveillance operations on Biggs’ wife, Charmian, who, he said, gave them the run-around on several occasions.

‘I was outside her home in Forest Hill, south London, in my surveillance van for weeks on end,’ he said.

‘On average, I would have been in the back of that van for 16 hours a day. Just me and my driver.

‘She took us to Gatwick three times, with cases and everything, and next thing we knew she was home again. She kept giving us the dance.