AN up-and-coming DJ has made an impassioned appeal for muggers to return a master copy of recordings they stole from him - fearing they will get into the hands of bootleggers.

One of the songs on the CD Insulted By The System that was stolen has already been signed to a record label, while the other is a sentimental tribute to a close friend who committed suicide three years ago.

"It's like having all of your instruments stolen because I can't recreate it without going back to the drawing board," said 26-year-old Marc Potter, who was mugged as he walked out of the subway on Kidderminster's Mill Street at around 9pm on Sunday.

The DJ/producer, who goes under the name of Melo DJ, now fears criminals will make copies of the tracks - Wasted and Shuffle Truffle - on the disc and sell them off as their own.

Without the stolen disc, he is also unable to make any changes to the tracks, which he spent six months recording and producing - and faces months of hard work recreating them.

"It all happened so fast - one minute I was on my way to McDonalds and the next minute I was walking pretty fast up Mill Street to get away from them," Mr Potter said of the theft.

"They didn't assault me, they didn't leave me for dead on the kerb or anything but, to me, that CD means a hell of a lot.

"I wrote both songs last summer and it's taken all this time to get some recognition for it so, just as I'm actually getting somewhere with it, this has happened."

The theft occurred when Mr Potter was approached by two men as he walked out of the subway.

They asked him for a "light" and when he took his lighter out of his pocket, one of them, described as dark-haired and around 6 ft, "grabbed" the packet of cigarettes and his CD out of his hands.

"I was absolutely shocked for hours afterwards then, when I could actually comprehend the situation the following day, I was a bit embarrassed because they were younger than me," he said, adding he thought both men were in their late teens.

"After I got over the embarrassment I decided I should report it because they could have given it to someone that could do a thousand bootlegs and then the next minute someone could be selling my track and there wouldn't be anything I could do about it."

Wasted, which Mr Potter says is based on an experience in his life, is featured on the soon-to-be released album by Kidderminster College-based Mighty Atom Smasher records, MAS 3, and was not meant to be circulated before that was released.

West Mercia Constabulary spokeswoman, Joanne Hammond, confirmed the incident had been reported on Tuesday morning and said an investigation was under way.

Anyone with any information on the theft should contact Kidderminster police on 08457 444888.

Mr Potter can also be contacted direct on 07941 761836.