Two years ago, concern about lying about qualifications on job applications became so great that Robert Walters, one of the UK’s largest recruiters, began to insist that all prospective employees arrive at first interview with paper copies of their certificates.

“Before that, we did it on trust when we met people,” Andrew Chancellor, managing director of Walters’s financial and professional services, said. “We tend to meet with accountants who have already worked for the big four firms, so we assumed we did not need to check everything. Now the clients want it. The banks check everything and double check.”

Lying about attending a university or school, or finishing a degree remains rare. Improving grades or degrees is one of the more frequent CV embellishments, especially by candidates in their late thirties or older. Other tricks include falsely extending the time worked with a company to cover a redundancy period.

With new laws against age discrimination in place, pinning candidates down on when they left school, university or jobs is proving increasingly tricky at an interview. So, checking behind the scenes is becoming even more thorough.

Failing to declare a county court judgment over a bad debt can cost a would-be corporate financier a job, even if it is over a parking ticket.

Undetected lying to win a job can have consequences for employers’ insurance. David Chancellor, head of Walters’s commerce team, said: “Insurance cover will say an individual employee is well covered provided the details the employee sent in are correct – if they’re not, then there is a problem.”

References are now typically demanded for five years back.

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