What constitutes a fraud upon an insurer?

In my view, the false information provided by the plaintiff in an attempt to obtain redress for the insurer’s refusal to provide compensation for stolen business equipment amounted to a fraud upon the insurer. The defendant acted upon the attempted fraud to its prejudice by spending considerable efforts in investigating the claim. The attempted fraud was compounded by the singular efforts of the plaintiff to bolster the claim and it was only after continued and obvious scepticism by the adjuster that the plaintiff recanted and confessed the facts. A contract of insurance is one of perfect good faith on both sides. In my view, a statement of principle which ought to bind the circumstances of the case before me is set out in the decision in Britton v. Royal Insurance Co., supra: It would be most dangerous to permit parties to practise such frauds, and then, notwithstanding their falsehood and fraud, to recover the real value of the goods consumed. And if there is wilful falsehood and fraud in the claim, the insured forfeits all claim whatever upon the policy.