UK civil servant found guilty of fraud over five simultaneous jobs

A British civil servant who secretly held five government jobs at the same time has been found guilty of nine counts of fraud. Kashim Chowdhury, 56, from east London, fraudulently earned more than £284,000 of taxpayers' money, a jury at Southwark Crown Court decided on 9 November. The jury unanimously convicted Chowdhury of eight counts of fraud by false representation and one count of fraud by failing to disclose information, after seven hours of deliberation. The judge said Chowdhury faced a "very significant custodial sentence" and refused bail because of the significance of the crime and for Chowdhury's own wellbeing.punchng.com+1

How he hid the jobs

Prosecutors said Chowdhury "exploited" the work-from-home culture that began during the Covid-19 pandemic to hide his multiple jobs. He was allowed to work entirely from home after telling employers he was caring for his mother, who had dementia and was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2023. In the spring of 2023, when his mother was a few months away from death, Chowdhury held jobs at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Department of Health and Social Care, the UK Health Security Agency, the Department for Business and Trade, the Food Standards Agency and the Home Office. He was contracted to work 183 hours a week, more than the number of hours in a seven-day week.

The prosecution told the court that on application forms Chowdhury provided inaccurate information about his employment status and failed to disclose he was already a civil servant. Once he secured the roles, he did not tell his employers he was working elsewhere. He also used sick notes to manage his overlapping commitments, taking sick leave from some employers while continuing to work for others.lbc.co.uk

Managers' evidence

A succession of managers testified about his poor performance. Dan McCartney, who managed him at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said he had to "effectively tell him what to do the whole time". McCartney said Chowdhury frequently switched off his camera during video calls, blaming technical problems, and that this went on for four to five months.

Despite this, because Chowdhury was not subject to formal performance measures at the department, he was offered a permanent position and remained there for two years. His line manager at the UK Health Security Agency, Aleesha Adams, described a video call in May 2023 where Chowdhury coughed repeatedly and waved tissues at the camera, and she alleged he had applied white make-up to appear ill.

Adams told the jury the make-up began coming off his forehead as the meeting progressed. "He was sweating, it was like rubbing off so it was darker underneath and darker on the neck," she said. Chowdhury denied the allegation, calling it a smear. Adams grew suspicious and escalated her concerns, but his activities continued for several more months until he left the civil service in September 2023.

How he was caught

Chowdhury was finally caught in 2024 by the government's National Fraud Initiative, which conducts searches of civil service databases such as payroll every two years to look for anomalies. He told the court he had taken on so many roles because he feared losing his livelihood after being made redundant from the Department for Education in 2013 and diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Prosecuting barrister Lucy Organ accused him of lying during the trial. "He's lied to you in evidence, he's lied to you under oath, which demonstrates the level of deceit he has descended to," she told the jury. The Crown Prosecution Service said it will seek to reclaim his fraudulent earnings through a proceeds of crime hearing.

Sarah Melo, specialist prosecutor at the CPS Serious Economic Organised Crime and International Directorate, said: "This was sustained and deliberate dishonesty. He knew he could not legitimately hold multiple full-time positions at the same time, but continued to conceal what he was doing." A Defra spokesperson said Chowdhury "abused the trust placed in him as a public servant".