A heartbroken dog owner has spoken out after her beloved pet’s ashes were stolen.

Laura Peskin’s lhasa Matty – short for Matthew – was sent to LimeKiln Farm, in Gloucestershire, by Hall Place vets, in Marlow, after Ms Peskin, originally from Marlow, sadly had to put him down.

The 11-year-old pooch’s ashes were due to be returned to Ms Peskin, who lives in Wooburn Green, last Thursday but instead, the van holding the ashes, was stolen in the early hours of the morning.

She said: “I have got no closure. I wanted the ashes back because having them would have given me closure and I haven’t got it.

“I feel absolutely sick. I lost both of my parents in the last year but I didn’t think I would lose my dog.

“I was just beginning to pull myself together when I got that call [last] Friday I knew I wasn’t going to get any closure.

“I feel my dog’s ashes are lying in the street somewhere and I can’t bear the thought of it.”

Matty was adopted by Miss Peskin when his owner suddenly died in 2016. Six weeks later, he suffered sudden onset glaucoma and lost sight in both his eyes in a fortnight.

She said she sadly had to put him to sleep on July 19 after he suffered a myriad of other health problems, including a huge mass in his stomach.

Miss Peskin said she was “frustrated” at the “lack of information” by Hall Place.

She said: “I got a call from the vets on the Friday but they gave me virtually no information.

“I had to ring around to find out what had happened and where the ashes had been stolen from.

“The lack of information has really frustrated me.

“They have always looked after Mattie wonderfully otherwise.”

But the vet practice insisted it had done everything it could have in the circumstances.

Practice manager Tessa Drew said: “We have been using the same crematorium for 25 years and this is a first.

“There were 32 white vans taken in the Gloucestershire area that night and so getting information from police initially was difficult.

“We gave out all the information we had at the time.

“It is difficult. We have immense sympathy for everyone this has happened to. For our clients it is a horrible thing to have happened.

“We responded to it immediately. It’s not that we were withholding information, it’s just that we didn’t have it.

“We didn’t set out with any intention to upset anyone or cause any distress.”

Gloucestershire Constabulary said in a statement: “We can confirm that in the early hours of Thursday morning police received a report that a white Ford transit van (VA65 VBF) had been stolen from The Sunground in Avening.

“The incident happened sometime between 11.30am on Wednesday and 2.33am on Thursday.”

Enquiries are ongoing and anyone with information is being urged to call police on 101 and quote incident 47 of 26 July.