Only one in five people who found a wallet would hand it in or try to track down its owner, according to research.

Card and identity protection firm CPP carried out an experiment in which 20 wallets and purses were dropped in five different cities across the UK.

The wallets contained £10 in cash, as well as photographs, tickets, receipts and stamps to make them look authentic.

They also contained business cards with telephone numbers that linked through to the research team.

But only two out of every 10 wallets that were dropped were returned to their owners, and only half of these still contained the £10. None of the 25 per cent of wallets that were returned in Birmingham contained any money. By contrast, all the wallets returned in London still contained the original sum of money.

Separate research carried out by the group found that 10 per cent of people have lost their wallet during the past five years, while eight per cent have had it stolen.

Despite the fact that six out of 10 people said they would either hand in a lost wallet or try to trace its owner, 77 per cent of people who lost their wallet or had it stolen never saw it again.

The group also found that as well as having an average of £85 of cash in their wallet, people also typically had £7,000 of credit.