Whether you claim to have captained the basketball team despite being just 5ft 2in or say you have gained a 2:1 when your degree is distinctly third class, the bottom line is that a lie is a lie and unlikely to endear you to an employer.

While we all like to put a gloss on our achievements, an outright lie or deliberate omission on your CV or job application form could see you on your way out of the door quicker than you can say P45. Yet a survey by Monster.co.uk found that 67 per cent of people would lie in a job application — 39 per cent of these about the reasons for leaving their last job, 18 per cent about their current salary and 10 per cent about their qualifications.

You might think that saying you went to Harvard Business School when it was really Hertfordshire Polytechnic is irrelevant if you’ve got a few years’ experience under your belt and have a couple of good references. But the issue is not what you lied about but that you were dishonest — and companies don’t want CEOs or anyone else who is dishonest.

Michael Leftley, an employment partner at Addleshaw Goddard, says: “It is hard to get away with lies on a CV for two reasons. First, honesty and integrity are far higher up the business agenda now than they were perhaps 10 or 15 years ago, and secondly, the wider availability of information means you are more likely to be found out.”

Leftley says: “It is not uncommon for people to invent fictitious degrees or upgrade their grades and most businesses don’t do any checking. And they are less likely to check if someone is more senior, when they will be more concerned with past performance and references. But when someone is caught, it is a matter of (the employer) weighing up whether the lie itself matters versus whether (it matters that) someone in a position of trust has been dishonest.”

So, what if anything, can you get away with?

nA wrong date. Juliet Carp, an employment specialist at Speechly Bircham, says if you accidentally put the wrong year for when you took your levels that would probably be seen as a mistake rather than a lie, even though it is untrue.

nA small white lie (possibly). If you’re not very senior and not employed in a responsible role, your employer might overlook a little fib. “It depends on your seniority, what you do and what the lie was about,” Carp says. A sandwich maker who says he played for the school netball team when he didn’t isn’t likely to be sacked, but a bank manager who says she got a first at Cambridge when she failed her first year at the local polytechnic will almost certainly be asked to log off.

nNot admitting a disability or age. “If you are talking about disability it starts to get very tricky and depends on whether the request for medical information was relevant to employment,” says David Harper, the head of employment at Lovells. “The employee could claim that it wasn’t a reasonable question to ask, the information is private or not relevant to the role,” he adds. The same might be said of age.

nSpent convictions. With the exception of a few jobs — those that mean that you’ll be working with children or hospital patients where criminal bureau checks are commonly carried out — spent convictions do not have to be disclosed.

nAnything, if your employer is careless. If you have been working for more than a year before your lie is discovered, you may be able to claim unfair dismissal if you are sacked. In the case of unfair dismissal, the employer has to show that the dismissal was for a fair reason and the correct procedures were followed. If they weren’t, the employee may be able to claim compensation or even be reinstated.

nAnything, if you can explain it. Leftley says that if an inaccuracy is discovered by a verification business — a company that checks CVs and applications on behalf of employers — you must be given the opportunity to explain the discrepancy before any action is taken.