Hey thanks for the tip about "blockchain.info" that worked.
My wallet imported it turns out its was my empty wallet from Bitcoin-qt.
In my haste I've saved the wrong wallet. My coins must have been in the Multi-bit wallet file.
The one I should have copied. Thats with the thief now but its passworded so they are probably lost forever.
The laptop may have already been formatted.
Out of curiosity is there a way to look up the block chain and see if the have been spent ?.
Sure, just copy paste the bitcoin address(es) in blockchain.info search box.
That was an expense way to learn about back ups.
What was the other poster saying about private keys ?. If I back copy a wallet file from any bitcoin client do I need anything
else to go with it for future reference ?
The wallet contains the private keys. Its all you need(ed) really. If you dont have a backup, those coins in that wallet are indeed gone forever, but the ones you had at the trading firm should be recoverable.