I read with interest and some despair your item ‘Registry fraud payouts soar’ (see [2008] Gazette, 4 September, 3). Some years ago, when it was proposed that land/charge certificates were to be abandoned with the move to e-conveyancing, I attended a seminar at the York District Land Registry. All the delegates attending were of the same mind: the proposals would result in an increase in fraudulent title dealings and the chain matrix system for tracking the process of conveyancing transactions (now to be postponed) was impractical.

The chickens have come home to roost. When will the powers that be start listening to those at the coal face? A similar story has, of course, unfolded with home information packs.

Anthony J AtkinWilliamsons, Driffield