Is It Illegal To Lie On Your CV?

Have you ever found yourself googling, “Can you lie on your CV?”?

In short, the answer is yes. You can lie on your CV, but you shouldn’t! You may think that a small fib is not important, but it can be illegal to lie on your CV in some circumstances.

Despite this, shockingly, 70% of workers have admitted to lying on their CVs on at least one occasion. Whilst a lie on your CV might not end up with you behind bars, false representation is a serious matter that can lead to you losing your job, being fined, or even a criminal conviction in some extreme cases.

What is false representation?

Under the 2006 Fraud Act, false representation is when an individual, or business, deliberately lies or misrepresents the truth for financial gain for themselves, or causes a loss to another party. This can be in a business deal, a transaction, or in a contract. A person is in breach of this law if they knowingly try to mislead another party for their own personal gain.

Examples of false representations:

• Using a membership card that does not belong to you to gain access to a secured location
• Using a credit card that does not belong to you
• Selling an item claiming it is more valuable than it is
• Lying on an application form or about personal circumstances for financial gain
• Selling an item that does not belong to you without the owner’s permission

False representation in CVs

If you lie on your CV, you may be making a false representation to boost your chances of securing a job. This is a crime against other individuals because you are attempting to secure a job at the loss of another candidate.

Serious examples of false representation in CVs can include the misrepresentation of academic records (fake degrees or certifications, manipulated grades etc.) These can elicit harsher consequences, especially if they were made up to secure roles in certain industries. For example, earlier this year, the Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire Police was sacked for gross misconduct and banned from police service for lying about his length of service and military rank during his career in the army.

Lying on your CV about your training or qualifications, particularly in certain industries, such as security, the police, the military, healthcare, and more, can make you a risk to yourself, or others.

What you might lie about on your CV

Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for people to lie on their CVs. So despite the real consequences, what do people lie about?

The most common lies on CVs include:

• Lengthening employment dates
• Exaggerating responsibilities
• Increasing grades achieved in education
• Changing previous job titles
• Inventing previous projects or tasks at past jobs
• Exaggerating proficiency in certain skills or tasks
• Inventing hobbies/ interests

Certain fibs such as inventing hobbies and interests to make yourself seem more interesting in your personal life are unlikely to be much of an issue. It may be a problem if you are making up a hobby in order to give yourself an advantage for the job, such as an interest in history for a museum role.

Including fake degrees / grades or exaggerating proficiency in a skillset and associated training can be much more serious. If you are underqualified for a role, this will come out and affect your reputation and is grounds for dismissal. Even if you secure the job under a lie and are able to carry out your tasks to a high level, the company may still fire you if they find out you lied to secure the job.

Why would you lie on your CV?

There are a range of reasons why you may choose to lie on your CV, such as:

• To cover up an employment gap: you may be tempted to edit employment dates if you have short employment gaps, out of concern it will make you less employable. However, your hiring manager/ recruiter will realise that your dates do not match up during reference checks.
• To fit in with qualification requirements: changing or inventing qualifications to align your experience with requirements is serious and can make you unqualified for the role. Even if you think increasing an old GCSE grade won’t matter, there may be a reason for this requirement and a simple check will reveal your lie.
• To supplement a lack of experience: whether you are starting a new career, or wanting to go into a particular niche, you may be tempted to exaggerate or invent experience to “get your foot in the door”. However, this lack of skills will then become more apparent when you start the job.
• To cover up issues: excluding information and facts that you think may be undesirable can make hiring managers more suspicious about your history, experience and what else you might be hiding.
• To stand out amongst other candidates: exaggerating your involvement in projects or the importance and scope of a project can seem like a white lie, but if you don’t have the experience, this will become evident to your future employer.

Lying on your CV can seem like a harmless way to get an advantage over your competition, however, when you are caught out, the advantages of lying will not outweigh the consequences.

What are the consequences of lying on your CV?

A lot of lies come to light during background checks, interviews or skills tests, or employment. Employers undertake detailed background checks and often facilitate skills-based tests in order to ensure you are who you say you are, and that your skills match up with your experience and the job. They also speak with references to ensure you are not making up any part of your employment history. The consequences of lying depends on the type of lie and when the organisations discovers it.

Embarrassment

You may experience embarrassment if small lies come out in the interview stage. For example, if you’ve put down on your CV that you’re an avid basketball player and the interviewer asks you who your favourite player is and you can’t answer – that will be embarrassing. Not all small lies will automatically cost you the job, but the interviewer may wonder what else you have lied about. However, on the other end of the scale, bigger lies could cause you immense embarrassment during the interview process or even in front of your new colleagues.

Removal from the recruitment process

If your skills or experiences on your CV do not match with what you’ve said during an interview, or a reference request from a previous workplace calls into question what you’ve said, the company may remove you from the recruitment process. They may try to talk to you beforehand to clear up any misconceptions or concerns, at which point you should come clean, but they may just find your application too suspicious and decide not to take you to the next stage.

If you are working with a recruitment agency, many recruiters will automatically remove you from the process if they suspect you are lying and cannot drill down to the truth, because they won’t be willing to risk their relationship with their client.

Dismissal

If your lie comes out whilst you are on the job, it is legitimate grounds for dismissal under gross misconduct. This is particularly relevant if you misrepresented your qualifications or exaggerated your experiences. Future employers may then question your reasons for leaving the company, to which you will have to tell them about the dismissal. This will likely make future employers sceptical about working with you too.

Banned from public services

For public service employers, such as the police, NHS, or other secure industries that require a higher level of vetting, if your lie is revealed while on the job you may be banned from working in that industry again. This will create significant issues for you, as you may need to find a new career altogether depending on your skillset. This will also raise questions about your reliability and trustworthiness to future employers.

Fraud investigation

A fraud charge that ends in a prison sentence is a much rarer consequence, but it can happen. For example, two years ago, a British Airways Pilot was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment for lying about his flying experience in order to secure a pilot job. Whilst the lies you’re thinking of telling might not be to that level, it is important to understand that exaggerating skills, experiences or training can have serious consequences for you, your colleagues, and your future employer.

How do recruiters spot lies on CVs?

Recruiters speak with candidates day in and day out. Most will specialise in a certain sector or skillset, meaning they regularly have conversations with professionals with similar backgrounds and skillsets. They know what questions to ask. If you are lying about a particular skill or experience, you will likely be found out, as recruiters use a number of ways to confirm your abilities, such as:

• Specific technical questions
• Skills tests
• Cross-referencing CVs and LinkedIn profiles
• Reference checks

If a recruiter suspects you are lying on your CV, they will either bring this up with you to get all the facts straight or remove you from the process. Overall, lying is not worth the trouble it causes. It is much better to be honest about your situation than lie and face the consequences.

If you are an IT professional who wants to secure your next IT role, check out our latest opportunities here or send in your CV to our team.