ATTEMPTING to steal from a community food bank has to be up near the top of the list when it comes to pitiful crimes.

Little wonder then that burglars who ransacked the Oxford Foodbank in Lamarsh Road have been condemned by just about everyone in the community.

And rightly so, because individuals this pathetic really do deserve our contempt.

First and foremost, let us hope police catch them so they can be properly named and shamed.

As Carol Roberts, of the Rose Hill and Donnington Advice Centre, which regularly refers people to the food bank, said: “These are people without a conscience. It’s a lifeline.”

And that’s probably an understatement for those needy families in our community who genuinely depend on the vital service it provides.

According to Robin Aitken, co-director of the charity: “It’s a completely pointless crime which has put us to expense to make the place safe again.

“It will cost a couple of hundred pounds to put right which could have been better spent.”

Quite.

But then to the mindless few who commit such acts, it doubtless even registers as a crime...