TRUE, we’ve asked you to name him, but just to help you along, we thought we’d start with his surname: ‘Scum.’ Too strong?

Well, you decide. This hooded youth made off with a donation bucket, the contents of which – £50 – was intended to help injured war heroes.

Martin and Debbie Scarrott, outside whose home in Barton the bucket was stolen from, are understandably sickened.

They have spent hundreds of pounds decorating their home with Christmas lights to raise money for worthy charities.

“We’ve been collecting for charity at Christmas for the last three years and this has never happened,” said Mr Scarrott.

“All the money was going to the heroes. They are in Afghanistan for Christmas.”

You can’t help but wonder if perhaps the best punishment for this sneak of a thief is to send him for a week or two to the front line in Afgghanistan, just so he can get his simple little brain around just what ordinary people like the Scarrotts – and millions others like them – are trying to do.

Chances are, with someone like this it wouldn’t make any difference. But then again it just might.

And surely it would prove a lot more meaningful than an Asbo.