Mills never overcame the trauma of the robbery. After the robbery, the gang hid at Leatherslade Farm. The police found this hideout, and incriminating evidence, a monopoly board with fingerprints, led to the eventual arrest and conviction of most of the gang. The ringleaders were sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Yes, the primary ringleaders of the 1963 Great Train Robbery were famously sentenced to 30 years in prison, a term that was considered exceptionally harsh at the time. The judge, Mr. Justice Edmund Davies, intended the heavy sentences to act as a deterrent against such large-scale organized crime. The gang had stolen £2.6 million (roughly £60 million today) from a Royal Mail train. Ringleaders like Bruce Reynolds, Charlie Wilson, and Ronald "Buster" Edwards received the maximum 30-year sentence. However, many of them did not serve the full term. Ronnie Biggs became the most famous fugitive after escaping from Wandsworth Prison only 15 months into his sentence, fleeing to Brazil for 36 years before finally returning to the UK in 2001. Most of the other robbers were eventually paroled in the mid-to-late 1970s after serving roughly 10 to 12 years, but the "30-year" figure remains a symbolic part of the case's legal legacy.