Abbott hopes for life outside jail: lawyer

"Postcard Bandit" Brenden Abbott is set to be extradited to Western Australia from Queensland but hasn't given up hope of having a life outside jail.

File image of Brenden Abbot being taken to court in Brisbane

File image of Brenden Abbot being taken to court in Brisbane in a van Source: AAP

Notorious "Postcard Bandit" Brenden Abbott hopes he can find a way to avoid more time behind bars despite a Queensland court ordering his extradition to Western Australia.

Justice David Jackson was unswayed by claims by the 53-year-old's legal team in Brisbane's Supreme Court the extradition of the recently paroled bank robber would amount to an "abuse of process".

Justice Jackson on Tuesday ordered the extradition to go ahead, more than two weeks after Deputy Chief Magistrate Terry Gardiner did the same.

Abbott was remanded in custody and will be required to appear in the Perth Magistrates Court within seven business days.

WA authorities are reported to have already boarded a plane to collect him from the Brisbane Correctional Centre at Wacol.

Abbott is facing charges stemming from a 1989 Fremantle jailbreak and could face up to 16 more years behind bars, it has been heard.

Speaking outside court, his solicitor Brendan Nyst said the notorious jailbreaker wouldn't give up hope of having a life outside prison.

Mr Nyst described his client as a "resilient character" who would explore legal avenues to reduce any further time he may be ordered to spend behind bars.

In launching their Supreme Court review, his lawyers had argued the extradition was an abuse of process partly because Abbott had tried to resolve the WA matters while behind bars in Queensland.

"The basis of his present application is that the application for extradition to Western Australia constitutes an abuse of process because it is unduly oppressive," Justice Jackson observed in his reasons.

But he ultimately found Magistrate Gardiner was "clearly correct" in finding that wasn't available as a ground of dismissal for the court.

"The power of the Supreme Court of Queensland on review is in this respect no wider than the power of the Magistrates Court in making the original decision," he added.

Abbott was arrested in Brisbane upon his release on parole last month, having served 18 years of a 25-year sentence for a string of robberies and a brazen jailbreak in 1997.

He was dubbed the "Postcard Bandit" amid claims he taunted police by sending them postcards while on the run after his Fremantle prison escape.

Before his extradition was ordered to go ahead, his lawyer said he planned to move to Cairns to live with his sister.


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Source: AAP



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