THE shopkeeper who is the latest victim in a spate of ram raids across east Kent and The Weald says the recession might be to blame for the increase.

Since December, 12 village shops and post offices have been targeted in what police say may be linked thefts and Sussex police are looking at similar attacks in Rye and surrounding villages.

Yashvant Shah, 41, runs the CostCutter grocer in Biddenden High Street where a car was driven into the front door at 2.40am on February 1.

"It's an old building but the door makes the corner so it was quite strong and they failed to smash it down," said Mr Shah, who has run the village shop with his wife Phavna for 21 years.

"There were pieces of the car outside, a bumper and the remains of a light and you can see the impact on the internal CCTV."

The door frame was repaired the following day and Mr Shah said he was relieved it is not expected to cost more than a few hundred pounds.

He added: "The alarm went off and I was here within minutes, as were the police, but I was shocked as we have had no problems with this type of attempted theft for many years."

Mr Shah said the last time he was targeted was in the early nineties.

"Britain was in recession then and I wonder whether this has a direct effect on the increase in criminal behaviour," said Mr Shah.

A Kent Police spokesman said: "We are linking an attempted theft at the shop in Biddenden to previous ones at village stores near Ashford."

They listed the post office in Tally Ho Road, Ashford, a shop in Rolvenden High Street, a newsagent in Martello Drive, Hythe, a garage shop in High Street, Dymchurch, and a shop in High Street, New Romney.

Detective Inspector Mark Weller said: "We would urge all shop owners to make sure that they contact police if they see anyone suspicious near their business, perhaps checking the security."