AS YOU tear open your Advent calendar today, be thankful there is just a chocolate and not a criminal suspect peering back at you.

It might look like a bit of fun, but there is a very serious message behind the Oxford Mail’s Badvent campaign.

Each day in the run-up to Christmas we will be featuring a different criminal on the run.

So far tip-offs from readers have helped police find and arrest at least 16 suspects.

What better Christmas present can there be than to help make our streets safer?