Oh how I agree with Anthony Shuttleworth that ‘land and charge certificates should be brought back before matters get out of hand’.

I suspect that matters are already out of hand, from what I have learned.

I am sure details of the cost to the Land Registry (and therefore we taxpayers) of compensating people who have lost out due to fraud can be obtained but, interestingly, I have never seen or heard of any statistics published.

I suspect the figures are horrendous.

I know of one case that a senior Land Registry official told me about (unofficially) which cost them over £5m – and he said there were many such cases.

I never understood the reason for the change, other than the cost of storage of deeds, and in my experience most property owners want to have their deeds kept somewhere safe anyway.

It is quite handy for client retention too.

A very robust and confident client of mine was just a few days short of having such a problem, and she was very shaken by it, even though she did not suffer any financial loss.

I wonder how many other solicitors agree with this view.

Bob Haworth, Director-chairman, Haworth Holt Bell, Altrincham