Raids on the county's service stations and stores are now becoming too frequent to be dismissed as a passing fad.

The 13 attacks we have reported since the start of the year may not be as headline-grabbing as the recent multi-million pound robbery of a cash depot in Kent.

But to the growing number of shopkeepers clearing up after them -- not to mention the customers they serve -- they are devastating nonetheless.

It seems unlikely these cowardly robberies, ramraids and burglaries are part of a co-ordinated campaign by a single gang.

They differ too much in style for that.

But it does seem more and more criminals are seeing local businesses as easy targets.

Technology like CCTV may help ensnare some of them, but we have never believed cameras on every street corner are the best way to fight crime.

It is people who must ultimately bring these idiots to justice.

The people who witness the raids and alert the police; the people who see a getaway car screeching through the night; the people offered cheap cigarettes from the back of a van by a shifty stranger: they are the ones who can redress the balance.

If we all open our eyes and ears, the communities the raiders seek to terrorise can deliver them to justice.