A 56-year-old civil servant from east London is facing an immediate jail term after being convicted of fraud for using remote working and sick notes to hold up to five full-time government jobs at the same time. Kashim Chowdhury, from Whitechapel, earned nearly £350,000 from eight different employers between February 2020 and September 2023, including more than £280,000 in gross pay accrued during months when he held more than one full-time position simultaneously.
Court hears of overlapping roles
Southwark Crown Court heard that Chowdhury lied about his employment status to secure overlapping roles across various government departments and public bodies. Judge Mark Weekes remanded him in custody on his birthday, noting that he faces an immediate custodial sentence. The prosecution has suggested a starting point of five years, with a sentencing range between three and six years.
Judge Weekes told the court: "It seems to me that in consequence of events over the last few weeks, unfortunately this is a defendant whose world from his point of view must appear to be collapsing around him." The judge added that the severity of the sentence offered "every incentive" to fail to surrender, noting that Chowdhury, even with restraint measures in place, had access to substantial funds and had suffered mental health crises under the pressure.
Exploiting remote-working culture
During the trial, prosecutors revealed that Chowdhury "exploited" the work-from-home culture born out of the Covid-19 pandemic to obscure his web of overlapping duties. When workloads became overwhelming, he resorted to taking sick leave from certain roles while actively working in others. In one incident described as "laughable" by prosecutor Lucy Organ, Chowdhury allegedly wore white make-up during a video call with his boss to fake illness.
His juggling peaked in May 2023, when he was actively being paid for five full-time jobs at once, at one point racking up contracts totalling 183 hours a week, mathematically exceeding the total hours available in a seven-day week. His employment trail included overlapping stints at Tower Hamlets Council (started February 2020), the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) (from April 2021), East London NHS Trust, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), the Food Standards Agency (FSA), and the Home Office.
Prosecution and recovery efforts
Prosecutors emphasised that Chowdhury repeatedly made false representations when applying for the roles, concealing his existing employment because none of the public bodies would have hired him had they known the truth. He frequently justified his remote-working requests by claiming he needed to care for an unwell relative. Jurors took around seven hours to deliberate before finding him guilty of nine counts of fraud.
Sarah Melo, a specialist prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) serious economic organised crime and international directorate, said Chowdhury's actions constituted "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," Ms Melo said. "His actions were motivated by financial gain... which we will now seek to reclaim through the Proceeds of Crime Act."
A spokesperson for Defra, whose counter-fraud team spearheaded the investigation, added: "Kashim Chowdhury abused the trust placed in him as a public servant and defrauded taxpayers out of almost £285,000. He will now rightly face the consequences for his actions." They added that the government has recently strengthened employment checks to identify public sector fraud more quickly and protect taxpayer money.
