If you think you've had a rough time recently, spare a thought for this woman.

In the past month, Barbara Greenslade, of Littlemore, Oxford, has had £1,250 stolen from her building society account, been burgled, had her shed broken into twice, had her wallet stolen while on holiday and her son's car vandalised.

She said: "It has been a hellish month - we just can't believe it all. We just keep thinking, 'when are we going to get some good luck?'"

The problems started when, while holidaying in Bulgaria, Mrs Greenslade's wallet was taken from her bag and with it, various bank cards, including a credit card, with which thieves then ran up a £1,500 bill.

On the same day, in Oxford, unknown to the 52-year-old teaching assistant, her home was being burgled by thieves.

A day later, someone hacked through a robust padlock to break into her garden shed, stealing several crates of beer. Thieves broke into the shed three days later, this time stealing the remaining beer and some wine. The next misfortune was when her son's car was vandalised - bricks were thrown through its rear window and its tyres were slashed.

Returning from holiday a few days later, she was "absolutely gutted". Then on Thursday, Mrs Greenslade used a cash machine and was surprised to read a message warning of insufficient funds. She said: "I couldn't understand why there was only £3.37 - and then I realised I'd been the victim of card cloning."

Mrs Greenslade said she had used a cash machine at Tesco at the Cowley Retail Park last weekend and, having read the Oxford Mail earlier in the summer about skimming devices placed there, reported it to the police and to Tesco.

But a spokesman for Tesco and the Royal Bank of Scotland, which are jointly responsible for the machines, said all their machines in the Oxford area had since been fitted with anti-skimming devices since the Mail highlighted the problem in May.

James Clements, of Thames Valley Police, said a spate of crimes in such a short time was highly unusual.

He added: "Our neighbourhood protection team in the Littlemore area is working to help the victim."