Civil servant who juggled five jobs raking in £350,000 found guilty of fraud

A civil servant who fraudulently juggled multiple government jobs by exploiting remote working and taking sick leave has been found guilty of fraud.

At the height of the fraud, Chowdhury, from Whitechapel, was contracted to work 183 hours a week across five jobs — despite there being only 168 hours in a seven-day week.

He was found guilty of nine counts of fraud at Southwark Crown Court on Monday, his birthday, after jurors deliberated for around seven hours.

Wearing a large grey knitted jumper, Chowdhury stared straight ahead as the verdicts were read out.

The court heard he exploited the shift to working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic to conceal his multiple jobs, using sick notes to help manage his competing commitments.

In one incident described by prosecutor Lucy Organ as “laughable”, Chowdhury allegedly wore white make-up during a video call with his boss, seemingly to make himself look ill, the court heard.

Between February 2020 and September 2023, he earned almost £350,000 from eight employers, including more than £280,000 in gross pay for months when he held more than one full-time job, jurors were told.

Civil servant Kashim Chowdhury, 54, arriving at Southwark Crown Court

PA

Sarah Melo, specialist prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) serious economic organised crime and international directorate, said Chowdhury had “deliberately concealed the true extent of his employment so that he could obtain and be paid for multiple full-time jobs at the same time”.

She added: “He repeatedly misrepresented the true nature of his employment status while continuing to receive full-time salaries from other public bodies.

“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.

“His actions were motivated by financial gain, allowing him to receive multiple salaries through his fraudulent conduct, which we will now seek to reclaim through the Proceeds of Crime Act.”

The CPS said it will seek to recover Chowdhury's fraudulent earnings through a proceeds of crime hearing.

During the trial, Chowdhury told the court that work was his “lifeline”.

He told the court that around May and June 2022, his mother’s health “deteriorated”.

He said: “That overwhelmed me at the time.”

During the trial opening, the court heard he began working for Tower Hamlets Council in February 2020, before taking a second job with Defra in April 2021.

The two roles overlapped for more than a year, the court heard.

For four months in 2022, he also held a third position with East London NHS Trust.

After leaving the council, prosecutors said Chowdhury continued working for Defra while gaining further jobs with 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 May 2023, he was being paid for five full-time jobs, the court heard.

At one point, he was contracted to work 183 hours a week – more hours than actually exist in seven days, the court heard.

Prosecutor Lucy Organ told jurors Chowdhury made false representations about his existing employment when applying for the roles.

“Clearly, he would not have been employed by his employers if they had known he had multiple other full-time jobs,” she said.

The court heard Chowdhury had told employers he had to work from home to care for his “unwell” mother.

But Ms Organ said his workload eventually became “too much to cope with” and his performance suffered.

The jury was told he then took sick leave from some jobs while continuing to work in his other positions.