"It was hardly Hatton Garden, at the most they'd have got away with a few hundred quid and some packs of fags," recounts owner of The Little Shop newsagents Doug Logan.

It's been almost 18 months since the front of his business was ripped off in a botched raid.

Doug thinks those behind it were under the influence - that's how mindless it seemed.

"They must have been on drugs, that's the only explanation. We're a tiny village shop, we're not a post office or petrol station," he said.

Regardless of their intentions they've never been caught.

The Little Shop lives up to its name, it's a tiny convenience store propped up against a row of houses in Sole Street, near Cobham, and is about the size of a typical single garage.

There is no cash machine.

"They either didn't do any planning or weren't very good at it," says Doug, explaining that even a cursory glance after hours would have revealed the heavy metal shutters sat just over the store's threshold and nothing of any worth to thieves.

The result was that the stolen car which was smashed into the façade just before midnight on October 22, 2019 did little more than cause a whole load of mess and a year of stress for Doug and wife Rena.

It drove off hitting several vehicles in the process and was dumped, with those responsible fleeing empty handed.

The couple were back in the shop serving customers the following morning as a police officer stood guard outside its boarded-up windows.

Throughout the pandemic they have worked to restore the shop - an essential resource for Sole Street's 1,000 residents.

The raid was one of 14 committed in 2019 and while it may seem amateur in comparison to those perpetrated by organized gangs wielding tonnes of stolen plant machinery the result was ultimately the same - massive destruction for minimal return.

Ram-raids may look dramatic and smashing a digger bucket through the roof of a supermarket to extract an ATM may seem like using a pneumatic drill to crack a nut, but they are rarely successful.

Since the start of 2020 there have been seven such strikes on businesses across Kent, two of which happened in the space of 24 hours at the end of February.

But only three yielded any reward, varying greatly depending on how much money was in the ATM at the time, and only one saw anyone brought to justice.

Thieves escaped the scenes of the others leaving a trail of destruction costing tens of thousands of pounds in their wakes but without a single bank note to show for their efforts.

In some ways Doug and Rena were lucky to be able to return to their business the following day, many of the places targeted are forced to close for months, greatly disrupting the communities they serve.

Some may choose never to host a cash machine again.

In Kent's most recent raid in Romney Marsh would-be thieves crashed a stolen digger through the wall of the Tesco Express store in High Street, Dymchurch at 2.15am, in an attempt to rip out the ATM.

The supermarket suffered significant structural damage and will be closed for several weeks.

A Tesco spokesman said: "We know the store is much valued by the community and we’re really sorry this has caused so much unnecessary inconvenience for our customers. We’re working hard to reopen, however the most important thing is the safety of the building and carrying out the necessary repair works and unfortunately as a result we don’t foresee reopening for a number of weeks.”

Detectives investigating the raid believe the digger had been stolen from the nearby Dymchurch Beach car park shortly before the botched raid.

A silver 4X4 and a flatbed Ford Transit were seen racing away from the rubble towards Hythe.

Less than 24 hours later, the gang struck again, this time with more success, making off with the cash machine previously fixed to the Shell petrol station on Thanet Way, Dargate, near Faversham.

This time they used a CAT digger at 1.50am on Monday.

It was loaded onto the back of a grey flatbed Ford Transit, which then left the scene in convoy with a dark-coloured Mitsubishi Shogun.

There was one other raid which happened earlier in the year at Morrisons in Northfleet in January.

Four or five suspects smashed through the roof with a JCB digger in a failed attempt to extract the machine at about 2.40am on January 31.

The machine careered through hedges, fences and bollards on its destructive route into the car park.

It was left with its arm still buried in the roof with the gang fleeing in two 4x4s and a flatbed truck through an adjacent cycle park.

The same store was targeted by crooks four years ago, but those behind that raid were locked up for the crime.

Ram-raids across the county fall to detectives from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate to investigate.

One of those tasked with tracking down those responsible is DI Emma Lawry.

She said while raids continue to be relatively rare occurrences carried out by a small number of organised criminal gangs, with detailed knowledge of plant machinery and cross-border connections the impact they have on communities can be far reaching.

DI Lawry added: "As well as the immediate financial harm suffered by businesses, physical damage caused to buildings can lead to severe disruption to vital services and amenities, that many local people rely on."

While the pandemic has been accompanied by a downturn in offences - 2019 saw 14 raids in Kent - the seven raids in 14 months has still caused significant damage.

The first was a botched raid at a Co-op in Harrietsham during the early hours of January 16.

The next morning, the store's ATM could be seen on the floor outside the shop right beneath a CCTV camera, and some of the windows in building were also smashed.

It's not thought a digger was used during the raid, with some people living nearby reporting what sounded like an explosion.

Other thieves have previously used explosives to break into cash machines in the county.

Officers investigating the Harrietsham raid at the time said they were called to a 'disturbance' and said it was reported someone also broke into the store and tried to access the machine from inside.

Weeks later an Esso garage in Staplehurst was targeted during the early hours of January 25.

Again, a digger was used to rip an ATM out of the wall at around 2.50am and again, a light-coloured flatbed van was used which was driven away in convoy with a white or silver Mitsubishi Shogun and a dark hatchback-style vehicle.

The vehicles used were very similar to the vehicles used in the two raids carried at the end of last month.

It is not known how much money the gang got away with.

In March two cash machines were loaded on to a flatbed after a digger was used to attack.

Two police cars which attempted to stop the gang were rammed and damaged. No one was injured and no arrests have been made.

Of course, March is when the country was plunged into the first national lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic, and incidents seemed to trail off until October when a botched raid was carried out in Westerham, near Sevenoaks.

During this raid, a van was left embedded in the front of a bank after being rammed through the glass.

It was driven into the wall of the Nationwide Building Society during the early hours of the morning on October 28.

Again no money was stolen but this time police did arrest someone.

Jon Ismajli, 26, of Fairchildes Avenue in Croydon, was subsequently charged with burglary, attempted theft and driving while over the legal alcohol limit.

The next day he appeared at Medway Magistrates' Court and pleaded guilty to all the offences.

Ismajli was then released on bail ahead of his sentencing at Maidstone Crown Court.

DI Lawry added: "We are doing all we can to catch those people responsible - it is a key priority for us.

"I would also like to reassure residents that our officers have a proven track-record of investigating crimes of this nature. Successful convictions in 2019, included two men who targeted machines across Kent and surrounding areas and who were jailed for 33 years between them.

"In early 2020, a further five men were jailed for a combined total of 22 years for similar offences."

And DI Lawry says officers continue to work with businesses across Kent to make potential cash machine target more difficult for gangs to attack them.

She added: "This can sometimes include making potential targets more resistant to attack or more difficult to damage, for example the installation of bollards or other barriers will often make it harder for plant machinery and vehicles to get close enough to cash machines."

The success rate of recent strikes seems to show shopkeeper's efforts may be paying off.

While it seems many raiders are escaping justice, their actions are more often than not fruitless, so why bother?

While the average cash machine contains less than £10,000 during low hours, they have capacity for almost £150,000, meaning a well-timed raid could net those behind it a quick windfall.

For business owners hosting some of the UK's 70,000 ATMs, the vast majority of which are free to use, they can be an easy secondary source of income.

They get paid rent by banks or get a cut of the small fees charged back to card providers and can rely on them to draw in a steady stream of potential customers.

But clearly ownership also comes with the risk you could turn up to work to find half your shop demolished.

If that happens the disruption felt to communities, especially small villages with ageing populations is significant and to those left picking up the pieces it is, as Doug Logan stresses in something of an understatement "a real pain in the backside."

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