Conveyancing solicitors face many hurdles in their day-to-day battle to transfer ownership of property.

Excessive bureaucracy from the Land Registry; frustrating delays in obtaining search data; irate clients with unrealistic expectations; all part and parcel of the average conveyance.

But spare a thought for those lawyers attempting to do the same job in other, less stable, jurisdictions.

North-east solicitor Clive Gladstone tells Obiter of the experience recently recounted to him by an African lawyer: ‘I was discussing the purchase of property with a friend who hails from a remote region of one of the North African countries.

He said that clients there usually pay the whole sum in cash – they do not use cheques or bank drafts, because the banks are usually small local enterprises, and often not to be trusted.

I asked him how they manage to keep the money safe when delivering it to the seller.

He replied that they use as many cars as possible, so that nobody knows which car the money is in, and enlist help from their friends and relatives – together with as many shotguns and automatic weapons as are available.’

There is a lot to be said for the BACs transfer.