A CUSTOMER who lost belongings worth thousands of pounds after a Worcester storage business went under says he doesn’t want the matter to be “swept under the carpet”.

Jonathan Sharp had items including photos of his late father and other goods worth about £9,000 in a storage unit at Guardian Self Storage.

He now fears he will never see them again but hopes somebody will get to the bottom of the matter. Mr Sharp, of Warwickshire, said: “I have still had nothing back and I can’t say I’m hopeful.”

The company closed the doors to the site in Sheriff Street Industrial Estate in October last year.

In November and December Mr Sharp spent four hours checking for his belongings and on January 19 he visited the site again and checked all remaining containers, but he returned empty-handed each time.

“It would be a disaster if this matter was swept under the carpet,” said Mr Sharp.

“If we combined the value of the missing goods you are looking at a substantial amount of money.

”It's heartbreaking to think that after splashing out thousands of pounds in storage fees my photographs could have ended up at a rubbish site. I hope the police and the liquidators will still make their very best effort to try to recover customers’ goods or perhaps discover information that could lead to arrests.”

Anybody still missing goods has been advised go to West Mercia Police.

A spokesman said: “We have found no direct evidence of any criminality, but we do not discount the possibility that the theft of some customers’ property may have taken place.

“The investigation has been frustrated to a degree by the poor running of the company. We have been contacted by a number of aggrieved parties who believe their property has been stolen.

“When they have taken all reasonable steps to recover their property through the receivers without any success, we have taken their complaint and recorded it as an incident of theft.

“At present there are very limited investigative opportunities and we would encourage anyone with new information to come forward and provide it to the police. We would also encourage customers to obtain legal advice regarding any possible civil redress.”

Butcher Woods, liquidators, said: “We want to help as much as we can but if the goods are not there it is a difficult position. Customers can lodge a claim for any loss they feel they have suffered.”