AN ABINGDON Road trader hit by crime has said she will shut her shop before Christmas because stock worth £800 was stolen.

While overall crime has decreased by 12 per cent in South Oxford from 495 to 437, domestic burglaries have risen by 19 per cent to 37 from 31.

The police figures are taken from the 2011/12 financial year from April 2011 to March 2012 and are compared to the same period in the year before.

Chris Green, who has run the Oxford Furniture Warehouse for nine years, said the latest theft from her shop in March meant she would close her shop by Christmas.

Her store was broken into the year before, and she was the victim of credit card fraud at the costume shop she owns next door earlier this year.

She said: “I’ve been broken into a few times. I’m having to close down because of the economic climate, but those things haven’t helped.

“When you are broken into it’s just another nail in the coffin. It just makes you want to give up really.”

She added: “I’m not going to knock the area itself, normally it’s fine.

“It’s a nice community and I get nice customers in.

“But I suppose with anywhere you get some bad ones.”

Vehicle interference, which covers all crimes involving a car, increased from one incident between March 2010 and April 2011, to 10 incidents.

But Sgt Joanne Hutchings, from the Abingdon Road neighbourhood police team, said the 10 crimes related to one incident in one road.

She said: “It’s was an isolated incident. It’s not that cars are regularly broken into, it was a one-off.”

She added: “The most common thing reported to us is the parking and the lack of, and that’s due to the nature of streets off the road.

“We have had a few problems with antisocial behaviour by the river in the past and we have increased patrols there, but this year there has been a significant reduction in reported incidents.

“It’s a really positive neighbourhood and the residents are really active.”

Mohammed Kharal, who owns the Sanaa Store in Abingdon Road, said there were some problems with drugs in Hinksey Park, adding: “I don’t park down the side streets in general – I have had my wing mirror broken here.

“Around here it is not too bad but the park needs a bit of attention, obviously now it is summer and the pools are open.”

The top three crimes in the area were criminal damage, burglary on dwellings, and theft from a vehicle.

Serious violent and sexual offences fell by 67 per cent from six to two, but less serious assaults increased – with less serious injuries rising from five to 11, and assault without injury from six to 11.

  •  Constantly updated crime statistics at street-by-street level are available at oxfordmail.co.uk/li