What started out on December 1 as an alarming, but seemingly one-off armed raid, has now turned into a worrying trend in and around Oxford.

Last night it emerged detectives were investigating yet another robbery, the 13th in a series of linked armed attacks on shops, businesses and car owners — and the 21st in total.

A man brandishing a handgun raided a store in Wheatley High Street on Monday night, shoving the gun into the face of the 63-year-old owner before ‘pistol whipping’ him over the head and escaping with an armful of cash.

The robber is thought to be responsible for 12 similar attacks.

In anyone’s book, it was a despicable crime carried out by nothing more than a common, petty thief.

The Oxford Mail has reported on a series of raids, armed and otherwise, since the first on a cab firm in East Oxford.

There have been so many, carried out by different but equally odious people, it is starting to become hard to keep up.

It looks like the police either know more than they are letting on, or know nothing at all.

Either way, we have a prolific gunman or men on the loose who, sooner or later, could use weapons to do something other than ‘whip’ victims over the head.

Those responsible have to be caught, before someone is seriously injured or worse, but as we write we are no nearer seeing anyone face justice.