Civil servant who secretly held five jobs found guilty of fraud

A civil servant from east London has been convicted on nine counts of fraud after secretly holding multiple full-time positions within the public sector simultaneously. Kashim Chowdhury, aged 56, was found to have maintained five overlapping government jobs during the spring of 2023, illicitly receiving over £284,000 in public funds. The prosecution described his actions as “deliberate, intentional dishonesty” and an exploitation of the system.

After a seven-hour jury deliberation, Chowdhury was found guilty of eight counts of fraud by false representation and one count of fraud due to failure to disclose information. The judge indicated that Chowdhury would face a “very significant custodial sentence” and denied bail citing both the seriousness of the offences and concerns for his wellbeing. Between 2020 and 2023, Chowdhury held eight full-time public sector roles concurrently, earning a total of £350,000.

The prosecution revealed that Chowdhury provided false information on job applications by failing to disclose his existing employment as a civil servant, and after securing these positions he did not inform his employers about his other jobs. He was allowed to work from home under the pretense of caring for his mother, who lived with him in east London and suffered from dementia and terminal cancer. Instead of reducing his workload, Chowdhury continued to acquire more roles. By spring 2023, just months before his mother’s passing, he was employed at six different government bodies, including the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Department of Health and Social Care, UK Health Security Agency, Department for Business and Trade, Food Standards Agency, and the Home Office. During this time, he was contracted to work an impossible 183 hours per week, far exceeding the total hours in a week.

The prosecution also highlighted that Chowdhury relied on sick notes to handle his untenable schedule. In March 2023, he was on sick leave from four of his jobs but continued working for the Home Office without disclosing his illness. Aleesha Adams, his manager at UKHSA, described a video call in May 2023 during which Chowdhury appeared to be coughing excessively and purportedly wore white make-up to simulate illness. Adams testified that the make-up began to rub off during the meeting, revealing a darker complexion beneath, a claim Chowdhury denied as a smear. When Adams later found that he had joined the call using a Defra email address, Chowdhury attributed it to a technical error, but Adams remained suspicious and raised her concerns with higher authorities. Despite this, Chowdhury’s fraudulent activities continued until he left the civil service in September 2023. His actions were ultimately uncovered by the government’s National Fraud Initiative in 2024, which conducts biennial reviews of public sector payroll and other databases to detect irregularities