A 56-year-old civil servant, Kashim Chowdhury, has been found guilty of nine counts of fraud after it was discovered he secretly juggled multiple full-time public sector jobs simultaneously. A jury delivered the unanimous verdict following a trial that exposed how the east London resident exploited government systems to collect multiple salaries for years. He kept taking on new jobs, but rather than reduce his workload to look after her.
Between 2020 and 2023, Chowdhury held eight different public sector roles that overlapped, allowing him to earn a total of £350,000. By the spring of 2023, he was concurrently holding five government positions. Prosecution evidence revealed that he provided inaccurate employment information on applications and failed to disclose his existing status to departments, ultimately fraudulently obtaining more than £284,000 in taxpayer funds. According to chowdhury, He had taken on so many roles because he feared losing his livelihood after experiencing insecure employment in the past. The prosecution argued that he used sick notes to cope with his impossible schedule.
Chowdhury secured remote working arrangements by claiming he was the primary caregiver for his mother, who lived with him and suffered from dementia and terminal cancer. Instead of adjusting his professional commitments to care for her, he aggressively pursued additional roles across several government bodies, including the Home Office, the Department for Health and Social Care, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the UK Health Security Agency, the Department for Business and Trade, and the Food Standards Agency. During one peak period, he was contractually obligated to work 183 hours per week. Once he secured the roles he didn’t tell his employers he was working elsewhere. During this period he was contracted to work 183 hours a week – more than the number of hours that exist in seven days.
The court heard evidence from various managers regarding his poor performance. Dan McCartney, his supervisor at Defra, testified that he frequently had to direct Chowdhury’s work entirely and noted that the defendant consistently kept his camera off during video meetings, citing technical issues. Despite these concerns, Chowdhury remained in the role for two years due to a lack of formal performance monitoring.
Suspicion intensified in May 2023, when Aleesha Adams, his manager at the UK Health Security Agency, attempted to hold a recovery meeting after he had been on sick leave for three months. He was on sick leave from four of the organisations he worked for, in March 2023.
Adams testified that Chowdhury appeared on camera wearing white make-up to feign illness.
As the meeting progressed, she observed the make-up smearing due to sweat, revealing his natural skin tone underneath. Chowdhury vehemently denied wearing any cosmetic substances, characterizing the allegation as a smear. The deception eventually collapsed following an internal investigation; he was officially caught in 2024 through the government’s National Fraud Initiative, which scans payroll databases every two years for such anomalies. It was like rubbing off so it was darker underneath and darker on the neck, adams told the court that as the meeting went on the make-up started coming off his forehead. ”He was sweating.
During the trial, Chowdhury claimed he took on the multiple roles out of fear of financial instability, citing a 2013 redundancy and a diagnosis of PTSD. He argued his decisions were clouded by stress and panic. However, prosecutors characterized his actions as “deliberate, intentional dishonesty” and accused him of “exploiting the system.” Barrister Lucy Organ told the jury that the defendant had lied under oath, reflecting the depth of his deception. He was made redundant from a job at the Department for Education in 2013 and was given a diagnosis of PTSD. She told the jury that at the start of the call he was coughing a lot and waving tissues up to the camera.
The judge has refused bail, citing the gravity of the offenses and the defendant’s wellbeing, and warned that Chowdhury faces a “very significant custodial sentence.” His fraudulent activities finally concluded when he left the civil service in September 2023. He added he was refusing bail because of the significance of the crime and for Chowdhury’s own wellbeing.
