Replacing a stolen ILR and timescale

[Te Arawa]

In November last year whilst working in Spain, my husband had his passport and all travel documents stolen. It was reported to the police in Spain and he was given a crime ref number etc. I was able to contact immigration and send copies of his documents and he was permitted re entry to the UK with no problems. We also reported the theft straight away to the HO. He is a New Zealand citizen, we were married in 2005 (I'm a British citizen and we have 2 children), he was granted ILR in May 2008 and carried his old passport with his new one when travelling.

Stupidly we weren't aware that it took so long to get a replacement and only sent off for the Biometric card mid March this year. The HO payment was taken on the 29th March and he went to the post office to do finger prints & photo on the 10th April.

The problem now is this... My husband works for himself and 75% of his work is based in the Med, he needs to be able to travel at the end of May or we stand to lose a large business contract. We have tried to get information from the ILR department and all they say is that it can take up to 6 months to process. I have been researching online and called various HO departments but I'm not able to get any definitive answers.

Can anyone help please... We are happy to pay for the premium/fast track service to ensure we get it sorted in time and we are aware that we need to go to Croydon for this. When we did the application we sent every possible document that they required, so.... How do we get all of the documents back in order to go to Croydon, do we even need to? If we make an appointment at Croydon will they obtain all of his documents in preparation for the meeting? Who do we contact please?
Thank you in advance for any information that will help