RSA Group has published the results of a survey on insurance fraud, which suggests that 1.2 million Britons do not believe it is wrong to lie when making an insurance claim.

Over half of those surveyed thought people who commit insurance fraud were likely to get away with it, however, 74% of respondents were aware that their policy could be voided if they were caught making a fraudulent claim.

RSA estimates that fraudulent insurance claims cost the industry over £1.5 billion a year and is keen to warn policyholders that new efforts are being made to tackle this kind of fraud.

In future, the industry will be passing on details of guilty parties to other financial services companies.

This could have serious consequences for some because it will affect the credit histories of those who are caught out exaggerating or lying in an insurance claim.

In today’s credit climate, consumers are increasingly anxious about their credit histories and 78% of those surveyed said that information sharing would make them think twice about cheating their insurer.

Insurance fraud adds around 5% to the cost of a policy and in recent years insurers have been investing considerable sums in its prevention.

In 2006, insurance companies detected and prevented more than £480 million worth of fraudulent general insurance claims.