UK Civil Servant Convicted of Fraud Over Overlapping Government Jobs

Kashim Chowdhury, a 56-year-old civil servant from east London, has been convicted of nine fraud counts after a jury determined he secretly worked in multiple government positions at once. The panel found him guilty of eight charges of fraud by false representation and one charge of fraud by failing to disclose information. Prosecutors said he fraudulently obtained more than £284,000 in public funds. A BBC report published Monday, Nov. 9, said the jury returned its unanimous verdict after deliberating for seven hours. During spring 2023, Chowdhury was employed in five government jobs simultaneously. Between 2020 and 2023, he had obtained eight overlapping full-time roles in the public sector, with total earnings of £350,000. The prosecution described his conduct as “deliberate, intentional dishonesty” and accused him of “exploiting the system.” The court was told that Chowdhury gave incorrect details about his employment status on application forms and did not tell government departments that he already held other jobs. Once hired, he also failed to inform his employers that he was working for other organizations. His roles included positions 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. In spring 2023, his contracts required 183 hours of work per week, more than the total number of hours available in a seven-day week. According to the report, Chowdhury was permitted to work fully from home after telling employers he was caring for his mother, with whom he lived in east London. His mother had dementia and was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2023. Instead of cutting back his workload to care for her, he took on further jobs. Chowdhury told the court he accepted several roles because he was afraid of losing his income after past experiences of unstable employment. He said he had been made redundant from a job at the Department for Education in 2013 and was later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. He said he had not been thinking clearly when applying for jobs “because of my stress, distress and trauma and due to my panic at the time.” 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 court also heard from several former managers about his work performance. Dan McCartney, who supervised 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 often turned off his camera during video calls and cited technical problems, a pattern that lasted four to five months. Because the department did not impose formal performance measures on him, Chowdhury was offered a permanent role and stayed there for two years. The prosecution further alleged that he used sick notes to manage his overlapping jobs. In March 2023, he was on sick leave from four organizations but kept working at the Home Office without telling the department he was ill. Aleesha Adams, his line manager at the UK Health Security Agency, told the court about a video call she arranged with him in May 2023, after he had been off sick for three months. Adams said she wanted to discuss a plan for his return to work. She told the jury that at the start of the meeting Chowdhury was coughing repeatedly and waving tissues toward the camera. She also alleged that he had applied white make-up to his face to make himself look ill. According to Adams, the make-up began to come off his forehead as the meeting went on. “He was sweating, it was like rubbing off so it was darker underneath and darker on the neck,” she told the court. Chowdhury denied the allegation and insisted he had not worn make-up. After the meeting, Adams found that he had joined the video call using an email address belonging to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. When questioned, he attributed the matter to a technical error. Adams said she grew suspicious and raised her concerns with senior officials at the agency. “I believed he was lying,” she told the jury. His activities continued for several more months until he left the civil service in September 2023. Chowdhury was identified in 2024 through the government's National Fraud Initiative, which checks civil service databases, including payroll records, every two years to find anomalies.