A WIDOW has made an emotional plea after she has claimed a large part of her late husband’s music collection - painstakingly curated and worth thousands of pounds - was allegedly stolen.

After the loss of Karen Wilkinson’s late husband, she never anticipated that his final gift to their son wouldn’t make it.

Peter Wilkinson left his extensive vinyl collection to son, Paul, which was subsequently put into storage with Thomas Masters Self Storage and Removals.

After moving houses, Karen left all of her belongings - including Peter’s music collection - in the town centre-based storage unit.

In February, when Karen moved into her new home, she was ‘devastated’ to discover that over 400 of his vinyl albums were missing.

Around 1,500 vinyl singles and 2,000 CDs were returned and when Karen searched for answers, she claimed the businesses’ CCTV had been overridden.

After her shocking discovery, Karen set out on a mission to reclaim as much of her late husband’s vinyl collection as possible.

She told the Chronicle: “I found just over 100 of them in Vinyl Underground in the Arcade in town and the owner was devastated.

“He returned them to me without charge.

“They were all identifiable due to my husband numbering them in his very identifiable print.

“I visited other vinyl sellers in the area who were all very helpful but never found any more.

“A lot of the still missing ones are very early pressings and worth a lot of money.

“If anyone local has bought any we would like to buy them back.

“The collection was left to our son who is absolutely devastated to lose his father’s treasured records.

“I went to the police and saw a lovely officer who said they would look into it but they have not been in touch with me since.

“The company say their insurance company won’t pay out as it was due to their negligence - even though they state they are covered up to £50,000, including negligence.

“It has upset us a great deal as a family.

“I haven’t slept for months - every time I look at his photo I think of it.”

A spokesperson from the firm added: “The incident is still ongoing and we have offered a settlement of £500 per month for a settlement figure of £8,000.

“There is still little evidence that the missing items were ever in our possession.”