A KEIGHLEY businessman has issued a heartfelt plea for the return of a stolen laptop computer containing the last recordings of his late wife's voice.

Steven Donnison's wife Sarah died in July 2012, aged 49, following an operation to remove a tumour.

The treasured laptop was taken from his van when it was parked at Keighley's Asda supermarket, in Bingley Street.

"It has recordings of Sarah singing karaoke and snippets of her voice while she was at a party," said Mr Donnison.

"I do have footage of her on family videos, but the recordings of her on the laptop were the most recent ones I had of her before she died.

"Everything in the laptop was backed up on an external drive, but that was also in the same bag so it was stolen as well. I'd only just gone into Asda for a few minutes to get my lunch."

Mr Donnison runs cat furniture business Kalven with his son and daughter.

The firm has been running for 23 years, but was only bought by his family 10 months ago and moved to its current home in Dalton Lane.

He said that as well as the laptop – a Dell Inspiron 1720 – the thieves made off with a camera, his passport, business cheque books and company product brand stamps.

"It stopped production for two days because our brand stamps were taken," he said.

"We also had our business accounts on the laptop, though we've managed to reconstruct those.

"The month it happened was the first month I was going to be able to draw a wage from the business. But because of this theft – no wage."

Mr Donnison said he was encouraged by the community-minded response of members of the public, who had picked up and returned items the thieves dropped or dumped, including his passport.

"There are some really good people in Keighley," he added.

He said the laptop – which he won as a prize for innovation in 2008 while working at Damart – has a black keyboard and a white top. Anyone who can help return it can contact him via his business website at kalven.co.uk.

Inspector Sue Sanderson, who leads Keighley Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT), said: ‘‘The Inspiron laptop, which was among a number of items stolen from the vehicle, contained personal files which hold significant sentimental value to the victim.

"I would ask that anyone who may have been offered a laptop for sale recently and believes this could be linked to the theft to contact local police.’’

Anyone with information about the incident – which happened between noon and 12.30pm on Friday April 24 – or the missing laptop, is asked to contact Keighley NPT on 101 and quote crime reference number 13150162312.