Fancy yourself as a budding Murray? Take a look round these properties that come with their own centre court

Tax-shelter season may be months away, but a series of ongoing battles are surfacing based on prior years’ tax shelters gone awry

In the wake of the financial world’s biggest fraud, is the Street bound for a new era of oversight, regulation and introspection? Dream on, says William Hanley

Consumer champion Tony Levene is calling it a day. Here he looks back at some of the battles he has fought and won over the past decade

Read Tony’s top tips on how to complain

1 My biggest victories

This week sees my last Capital Letters column. After nearly a decade of helping Guardian readers get justice – and warning them about frauds, scams and dodgy deals – it’s time to close my mailbox. Over the years I’ve read some 40,000 letters and emails, and published more than 2,000.

I’ve won back well in excess of £1m for readers. My biggest victory in financial terms involved a £350,000 “stolen” house, of which more later. But the numbers game is not the real point. Someone who is fighting over £50 can feel just as much hurt and injustice as another disputing £5,000.

And there are the victories in which I had only a ghostly walk-on part. Countless readers have told me how putting “cc Tony Levene, Capital Letters, the Guardian” on a complaint suddenly opened hitherto slammed doors.

But perhaps more important than numbers is the effect I’ve had on financial and consumer affairs. Bizarrely, my first column in 2001 and the one published a fortnight ago both dealt with Nationwide’s failure to properly transfer a cash Isa. However, much else has changed … and for the better.

Here are some of the areas where I believe I’ve made a real difference. All originated because you, the readers, had written to me.

Property I continually warned against get-rich-quick property seminars and the false hopes of big bucks from “landbanking” firms. I sat through several so-called “workshops” from property firms Inside Track and Instant Access, where the only “work” was to sell the expensive dream of becoming a “property millionaire”. My “reward” was a stream of legal threats and phone calls from former directors that cannot be repeated in a family newspaper. Inside Track and Instant Access went bust last year.

Payment protection insurance It took three articles before I convinced Barclays it was wrong to have sold this expensive cover to a woman who could never claim because she was self-employed. I fought and won many similar cases. It’s been a long struggle which is not yet over but, as a result, regulatory authorities have severely limited the banks’ scope to rip off borrowers via PPI plans.

House recovery In 2005 I featured a Brighton man whose £350,000 house was literally stolen while he was working in the Far East. A crooked tenant convinced lender GMAC he was the real owner, “remortgaged” the property for £207,000, and fled abroad with the cash. Besides persuading GMAC to return the house (which it had grabbed due to mortgage arrears) to the rightful owner, I exposed weaknesses both at the Land Registry, and in identity theft protection, that have ensured no one else’s house has been stolen since.

The imprisoned student When a theology student tried to withdraw £200 from a Barclays branch with a card whose security chip malfunctioned, the teller hit the panic button instead of double-checking the card. The police arrived in force, locking up the student for seven hours. The bank paid him £4,000 in compensation for his ordeal after I rejected its previous offer. Bank staff were issued with new instructions on panic-button use.

There have been many others: the 18-year-old single mother on benefits lent £5,000 by NatWest for a nose job must have taught the bank something; the exposure of dodgy solar-panel companies has hopefully helped prevent green rip-offs; and the countless timeshare and vacation club problems should have convinced consumers this rarely works.

2 The worst scams I’ve warned against

Where do I start? There are so many. But unlike most rival reader problem pages, I always stressed scam warnings.

I believe it’s far better not to lose money in the first place than to try to recover it later – and the sad fact is, most of the money lost to fraudsters is never recovered.

I’ve written about so many boiler rooms that I could, if I was criminally minded, set up my own. It’s a simple, time-tested formula that works. All you have to do is to set up a call centre – Spain, Thailand, Hungary, Curacao, it doesn’t matter – give the company a vaguely respectable-sounding name, staff it full of chancers, and sell shares in a company that sounds as though it has a miracle product but really is nothing other than hot air.

I’ve also written about “recovery rooms” – boiler rooms which offer to buy the phoney shares you can’t sell if you send a fee. They take your cash, but do nothing.

Phoney lotteries, ranging from small-scale £10 a time efforts to El Gordo (its international crime clone and not the real Spanish draw) have been high on my hit list.

Why does anyone believe in them when they have grown out of the tooth-fairy? I’ll leave that to the psychologists!

I could fill a book with other scams. In fact, I did. It’s a paperback called How to Avoid Scams.

3 The most heart-rending letters

I’ve found a big disconnect between what financial firms preach in mission statements about disability and what they practise – particularly when it comes to mental health problems.

I’ve often highlighted how the banks treat victims of bipolar disorder (previously known as manic depression). This can cause sufferers to go on irrational spending sprees, which they can’t afford, on their credit cards.

I’ve pointed out to banks they need help rather than harassment. And when you do this at a high level, it usually works – at least that time.

I even had to tell one bank to lay off chasing someone for debt who was detained in a hospital under the Mental Health Act. The bank ignored the man’s family and his doctors. It was only when I said the bank would have its case thrown out if it tried to take someone with severe problems to court that it backed off.

The deaf often get an unsympathetic reception from call centres, who sometimes refuse to talk to a family member with good hearing, quoting “data protection act procedures”.

While data protection is important, I’ve found it is all too often an excuse for appallingly insensitive service.

It can never be a happy moment when a mother calls me to denounce her daughter as a fraud.

But perhaps the saddest of all was the Yorkshireman who fell for a Nigerian letter scam. He thought he would get millions of dollars. Instead, he handed over all his savings to the fraudsters, followed by the remortgage proceeds of his house – some £220,000.

And when I told him to stop and save what little he had left, he abused me for “interfering” in his private business.

4 The most common complaints

I’ve been overwhelmed with problems involving utility companies. You’ve told me tales of such jaw-dropping incompetence by phone, gas and electricity companies that I wonder how anyone can trust anything from them.

How do gas companies manage to send bills to people without a supply – and then threaten them with court action for non-payment? And why can’t phone companies manage a basic connection three months after taking money from the customer when all the wires are present in the home?

As for getting bills right, forget it. How do power companies send people living in one-room flats bills for thousands? What surprises me is that so few complain.

The likes of British Gas, npower, British Telecom and TalkTalk have taken up a more than a fair slice of my inbox.

Mobile phone companies seem to be a law unto themselves. Some even force me – and you – to phone premium 0870 lines just to complain.

And what has amazed me is the total apathy and complete unpreparedness of so many managers in these firms.

When TalkTalk offered “free broadband” a few years ago it was overwhelmed by the response, and its customer service systems went into meltdown. But if I’d have come up with a highly publicised new service that was bound to attract millions, I would have ensured I had the infrastructure to back it up. So why do the hugely paid managers and directors of these firms fail to?

Railway ticketing is another mess. Those who send in complaints about these firms usually only do so after beating their heads several times against the call centre brick wall.

I can only deal with a tiny percentage of these justified complaints. It’s to the shame of these companies that I’ve had so many.

5 The silliest complaints

Most Capital Letters complaints are justified. In general, I’ve found people only write when they have exhausted every legitimate avenue.

But can it be right to complain over the difference between a first- and a second-class stamp? That was one I did not take up.

One reader wanted me to get him compensation for a bad meal he ate on an internal flight in Mexico.

And I was feeling very sorry for one student victim of bank charges – until, at the end of his letter, he revealed he had deliberately ignored five warning letters from Barclays.

6 The biggest legal rip-offs

The ultimate accolade must go to endowment mortgages, followed by precipice bonds and payment protection insurance (PPI).

All these came with the blessing of the Financial Services Authority, which oversaw the products, the way they were sold and the small print.

While I can’t take the credit for the original endowment mortgage mis-selling story – that honour belongs to my colleague Patrick Collinson – I worked hard to help readers who had been turned down for compensation, often for iffy or made-up reasons.

It’s no wonder. The mis-selling episode added up to billions of pounds.

I forced many companies to back down and compensate, though, sadly, I could do nothing about some gaping loopholes in the compensation scheme.

The first was that anyone who bought before 1988 was not covered, unless they could show they bought from a company still in business. And very few advisers were.

Even some banks and building societies denied they sold the plans – even though their literature pushed high-commission endowments as the only way forward. A second group denied justice are those that bought until the mid-1990s from solicitors and accountants who, for some unfathomable reason, remained outside the regulatory framework set up in 1988.

I led the way in warning about precipice bonds – supposedly high-income products whose small print revealed investors could lose some, or all, of their money if stockmarkets fell even a few points over five to six years – early on. But the lure of commission meant firms kept selling them.

It was with no joy that I saw Lloyds TSB fined £2m with £98m compensation for mis-selling the bonds, or IFA firms such as David Aaron go bust.

And I was among the first to challenge the banks on PPI. I pointed out – and it often took several articles and many weeks’ work – to banks such as Barclays and NatWest that it was wrong to sell the overpriced cover.

In particular, it was wrong to sell it to pensioners and the self-employed who could never claim. They are still selling PPI, but under far stricter conditions, thanks to this campaign.

7 Who’s good…

I’ve never featured a letter of praise from readers. But some have sent in examples of good practice – often as a reaction to a complaint.

The list is depressingly short. There’s old favourites such as John Lewis/Waitrose, while Asda has a fan base. The only bank that consistently attracts praise is First Direct, though HSBC has a low complaint score and Barclays has improved substantially.

Japanese car makers score best.

Now that I’ve praised these firms, I’m sure my successor at Capital Letters will get scores of complaints about them.

I’m off to … well, I don’t know exactly. But I’ve joined the twitterati – you can follow me on twitter.com/tonylevene1

And, although I’m leaving, Capital Letters will continue to fight for you.

In the coming weeks it will be in the capable hands of senior trading standards officer Steve Playle. So keep the letters flooding in.

Once again, thank you, dear readers. Without you, there would be no Capital Letters.

Tony Levene may be leaving, but Capital Letters isn’t going anywhere and will continue to fight your corner. In the coming weeks it will be in the hands of experienced trading standards officer Steve Playle. Write to him at: Capital Letters, Money, The Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU or email capital.letters@guardian.co.uk. Please include a daytime phone number.

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Venezuela’s government formally takes control of the country’s third largest bank - the Spanish-owned Banco de Venezuela.

Over on the Transportation Blog, I’ve asked for information from transit users on obstacles they see to public transportation, be it train or bus.

Saturday’s editorial page has an editorial saying nice things about new hike and bike trails, sidewalks and bridges to DART train stations.

Here’s an example of what we’re talking about. It’s a footpath worn into the grassy road shoulder along Greenville Avenue north of Blackwell Street. This is not too far south of the Park Lane train station.

Why isn’t there a sidewalk here?

View Larger Map

Read more about this over on our blog devoted to transportation.

–Rodger Jones/Editorial Writer

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This is a guest post from Mr Credit Card from www.askmrcreditcard.com. Mr Credit Card reviews credit cards. He even has a best credit card offer list!. While both Mr Credit Card and myself review credit cards, we both realize that credit cards have ruined some folks. So I’ve asked Mr Credit Card to write a [...]

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With the cost of motoring on the rise, we find ways to cut the expense (and help the environment)

1. Pump up your tyres and cool your passion for air conditioning

It is estimated that 50% of the tyres on the road are under-inflated, which increases resistance and raises your fuel consumption. Driving with soft tyres can add up to 2% to your fuel bills, the RAC says. So keep your tyres inflated to the correct level. See your car’s manual for the recommended pressure, check your tyres once a week and use the air pump at your local garage.

Air conditioning uses up to 25% more fuel, according to the National Energy Foundation, so don’t use it unnecessarily. Switch it off and open your air vents instead, or just have the window down. But if you’re travelling at more than 60mph and it’s too hot, you’re better off having the air-con on instead of keeping the windows down. Open windows increase drag, which at high speeds can cost you more in fuel than having the air-con on.

2. Maintain your motor

Inefficient, under-serviced engines can reduce fuel economy by 10% or more. So have your car serviced regularly. Dirty air filters can seriously reduce your fuel economy, according to the RAC. So change them regularly. They are inexpensive and easy to change if you have your car’s handbook. Similarly, have the oil in your car changed regularly. Having clean oil reduces the wear caused by friction of moving engine parts, and helps improve fuel consumption.

Make sure your petrol cap fits tightly – petrol will evaporate if the cap is not airtight.

3. Adjust your driving technique

Drive smoothly and consistently using higher gears. Avoid sharp braking and accelerating and you can save as much as 30% on fuel costs, says the RAC. Change up a gear in a petrol car when you reach 2,500 revs a minute and at 2,000 revs a minute in diesel cars to be most fuel-efficient, the National Energy Foundation recommends. When starting from a dead stop, accelerate slowly.

If you make a cold start, don’t sit around idling. Move off as soon as you can, and stay light on the accelerator until the engine has warmed up.

Reverse into parking spaces so you can drive smoothly away later without having to reverse when the engine is cold.

Driving at 85mph uses approximately 25% more fuel than at 70mph, so stick to the speed limit.

4. Get rid of weight and reduce the drag

Remove roof racks, carriers and removable seats when they are not in use, take out unnecessary boot luggage such as golf clubs and other sports equipment. Think twice about heavy accessories and wide tyres that add rolling resistance. On average, every 50kg will increase your petrol consumption by 2%, according to dedicated website save-petrol.co.uk. Flags and fancy sun roofs also increase your car’s aerodynamic drag and increase fuel consumption. And carrying around the extra weight of fuel in a full tank will itself reduce fuel efficiency, so don’t fill your tank up to the brim.

When filling up, find your cheapest local petrol station by using specialist price comparison website petrolprices.com. But don’t drive too far out of your way to get to a petrol station for only a tiny discount on fuel prices, as the extra petrol you use getting there will cancel out the saving.

Opt for a station on a route you often travel if possible.

5. Think green to save money

Ask yourself if you really need to drive, especially on short journeys, which are the most inefficient in terms of fuel consumption.

Cars have an insatiable thirst for fuel when cold. A car capable of 40mpg on a motorway run, for example, can plunge to 15mpg or less on a short run in town. Could you walk or cycle instead?

If you have to commute by car, halve your fuel costs by car-sharing with a colleague or consider park-and-ride schemes. If you must drive, plan your route in advance and check it on TV, radio or online for hold-ups.

Small cars stuck in traffic jams use up a litre of petrol every 60 minutes, costing drivers around 1.7p per minute. Larger cars lose petrol at double the rate.

When replacing your car, you’ll make major savings in fuel costs if you buy the greenest car in your price range – the one with the best mile-per-gallon performance and lowest CO₂ emissions.

The RAC says that the difference between a fuel efficient and not-so-efficient £10,000 car can be about £12 a week.