CRIME may be no laughing matter, but criminals certainly can be. There will no doubt be more to add to the list in the next fortnight, but here’s a highlight of some of the year’s tales of hapless misdeed – a useful reminder of how easy it is to fall prey to one or several of the seven deadly sins, even if you’re not on the wrong side of the law.

Take Raymond, who can add sloth to his sin of greed. Had he done his homework properly, his plan to use a gang of men and stolen heavy-duty digger to break through a depot wall to steal millions of pounds worth of goods might have worked. Once through and faced only with an empty room on the other side, they realised they’d smashed the wrong wall. Their luck went from bad to worse when the getaway car got stuck in the mud.

Then there’s young Ashley who might well have got away with his burglary had he been more modest.

He celebrated his haul with a selfie, using the stolen mobile phone. He had replaced the SIM card with his own, but the rightful owner’s WhatsApp messenger service transmitted the images automatically to the victim’s friends, who of course passed the photo to the police.

CCTV has been widely used to monitor public and commercial areas for more than 30 years now. We expect to see it, especially in places with expensive goods. And yet it’s a mystery to me why a West Midlands man didn't think of that and inadvertently become the star in his own art heist film, which then went viral.

In can’t-make-it-up footage, the man is seen taking a quick look round an art gallery, whisking his chosen painting off the wall, then trying in vain to stuff the framed work down his hoodie before simply planting it under his arm and blithely walking out the door.

Finally, spare a thought for the luckless Jamie who stole a £200 fish tank from a Leeds homeware store and ended up in the tank himself, swollen and itching to boot.

A swarm of wasps were none too impressed when he relieved himself on their nest shortly after retreating from the scene and got to him before the police.

Police found Jamie in agony and then spent six hours at Leeds General Infirmary, before being discharged and appearing before magistrates to face a second punishment for the theft. Natural justice?