Has the cost-of-living crisis lurked behind a worrying rise in shoplifting this year? Or is it a lack of ‘bobbies on the beat’ or maybe just good old-fashioned greed? The jury is out but the problem has been one ramping up through the year.

Kent Police reported a 17% hike in reported cases in 2023 – leaving shopkeepers exasperated, anxious and left with little choice but to put up their prices. Some stores – such as Lidl – have issued staff with body-worn cameras to catch offenders in the act. Tesco has given staff the option.

The scale of the problem led one councillor in Gravesham to describe it as “more like looting than shoplifting”.

It’s an issue which is likely to be a topic of debate when the Kent Police and Crime Commissioner elections roll around in May. Incumbent Matthew Scott will be hoping for a third term and will no doubt be discussing how he intends to tackle the problem.

Talking of shops, it’s been another year of transition for our high streets. There were yet more high-profile casualties too. Most notable was Wilko which slumped into administration in August. It put a huge cloud over the future of its 13 Kent stores – all of which would be closed by October. They blew big holes, once again, in town centre retail offerings.

The Range eventually took the brand over – turning it into an online operation and promising to return it to the high street. Two branches in – unnamed – areas of the South East are proposed for 2024. We may not have seen the last of it yet.

Other shops closing including M&Co, which had five Kent stores. It went into administration in December 2022 and by January started announcing closures. Argos has continued shutting its standalone stores (now relocating within branches of Sainsbury’s), while multiplex chain Cineworld looked like it was teetering on the brink earlier in the year – but survived to fight another day.

Dover saw its once mighty De Bradelei Wharf shopping outlet announce it was to close for good in July.

Expect the changes to continue as traditional bricks and mortar retailers continue to struggle in the face of online competition.

Some of the county’s big employers made significant changes too. Saga shuts its headquarters in Sandgate – pointing out that most of its staff now worked from home – while Pfizer, always so keen to point out it still had a major presence at Discovery Park in Sandwich (it once was the sole occupier before its 2011 exit) decided to cut 500 jobs at the site. It had employed 900.

It’s not all bad news though. BAE Systems, in Rochester, confirmed it was to create 500 new jobs over the next five years. It’s industry? Defence and security. Which probably tells its own story about the world we currently live in.

We don’t need reminding of the war which continues to rage in Ukraine – even if it has been knocked down the news running order by the recent conflict in Israel and Palestine.

In fact, in January, it was reported a Russian warship – apparently armed with hypersonic missiles – had to be accompanied through the Straits of Dover by the Navy as it headed towards the Atlantic following an exercise in the North Sea.

In February, a family tragedy caught the attention of many. Tyla Wanstall had arrived at his burger van off the Old Thanet Way to make a grisly discovery. Inside were the bodies of his mother, Leah Churchill, 50, and 17-year-old sister Brooke Wanstall.

It transpired they had gone to decorate the interior of the van for Tyla’s 26th birthday. But, an inquest heard, they had started a petrol generator and they had quickly been overcome by the fumes. Tests revealed fatal levels of carbon monoxide in their bodies.

In November, a lengthy court case took place into the death of 18-month-old Alfie Phillips in a caravan in Hernehill, on the outskirts of Faversham.

A jury at Maidstone Crown Court found his mother, Sian Hedges, 26, and her then-boyfriend, Jack Benham, 35, guilty of beating the toddler to death in November 2022. They had been told of how the pair had subjected the little boy to an “aggressive, violent” show of discipline.

Alfie had 70 visible injuries and multiple broken bones at the time of his death. Traces of cocaine were also found in his body, indicating he had been recently exposed to the Class A drug, which his mum and Benham admitted taking in the hours before he died.

Hedges and Benham pointed the finger at each other, with both denying any involvement in hurting the youngster. Both will be sentenced – in front of TV cameras – in January.

In August, the alarm was raised when Claire Knights, a 54-year-old mother from Upstreet, near Canterbury, failed to return after taking her dog for a walk. Her dog was found running loose near Minnis Bay, in Birchington, and her car parked in a lay-by in nearby St Nicholas-at-Wade.

Friends, family and police conducted searches of the local area and made appeals for anyone who may have seen the talented artist. The search ended tragically when family members found her body in a ditch. An inquest heard Ms Knights had died from blunt-force trauma and drowning.

Harrison Lawrence-van Pooss, 20, from Margate, was arrested and subsequently charged with her murder. He is due to stand trial in June.

December 2022 had seen one of Kent’s most despicable figures return to the courts.

A year after David Fuller, 68, had been handed two whole life sentences for the murders of Wendy Knell, 25, and Caroline Pierce, 20, in two separate attacks in Tunbridge Wells, in 1987, and sexually abusing the bodies of more than 100 women and girls at hospital mortuaries, in which he worked, he was further punished for more cases of abuse.

In November this year, an inquiry into his dreadful crimes said Fuller was able to offend for 15 years without being suspected or caught due to “serious failings” at the hospitals where he worked – the now-closed Kent & Sussex Hospital in Tunbridge Wells and the Tunbridge Wells Hospital at Pembury. Both come under the remit of the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust.

Meanwhile, Michael Stone – the man convicted of the brutal murders of Lin and Megan Russell in Chillenden, near Canterbury, in 1996 – may finally get another chance to plead his long-held claim of innocence.

The Criminal Cases Review Commission – the independent body which needs to approve any challenge to a conviction before referring it to the Court of Appeal - confirmed in October it will look again at the case.

It came hot on the heels of a new Sky TV documentary into the murders and subsequent investigation. As ever, a cloud of doubt remains over his conviction given the absence of any forensic evidence linking him to the crime scene – and a confession to the killings by serial killer Levi Bellfield.

Expect an outcome to that during 2024.

But let’s wrap up this look back over the last 12 months with some good news. At least for some.

Because there are plenty of people in the county for whom 2023 will be one to remember.

In May, a woman in the county won £1m on the Euromillions – sensibly remaining anonymous – while in August a chap pocketed a similar amount after playing a Lucky Dip ticket in the National Lottery. He was anonymous too. Unless Mr C is his real name. It probably isn’t. Nor is Mr B likely to be the full name of the November Euromillions winner who also took home £1m.

The People’s Postcode Lottery proved beneficial to the good folk of Deal with residents of one lucky postcode winning a share of £11m.

And you know those Omaze adverts? Well, if you ever wondered if people actually won what was advertised then ponder no more. In March, a multi-million cliff-side property in Kingsdown, near Deal, was put on the market by the lucky winner for a cool £2.65m.

While in October, Simon Williams from ‘north east Kent’ was raising a glass to his good fortune after he won the Omaze house in Devon valued at £2m.

Mind you, none of their good fortune could afford the £32m country estate of Linton Park, near Maidstone, which went on the market in May. What do you get for your cash? Well, 12 bedrooms and a host of other properties sat within the sprawling 440-acre site. It is, apparently, one of the biggest country estates to hit the market this century.

As Del Boy used to say, who knows, perhaps this time next year we too will be millionaires (just don’t count on it).