Fraudster job-juggling civil servant faces jail as world ‘collapses around him’

A civil servant is facing an immediate jail term after he was convicted of fraud by using remote working and sick notes to juggle up to five full-time Government jobs at the same time.

Kashim Chowdhury, 56, lied about his employment status to get a string of overlapping roles across Government departments and public bodies, Southwark Crown Court heard previously.

Between February 2020 and September 2023, Chowdhury, from Whitechapel, east London, earned almost £350,000 from eight employers, the court heard.

This includes more than £280,000 in gross pay from employers for months when he had more than one full-time job, jurors were told.

Judge Mark Weekes remanded Chowdhury in custody on his birthday, telling him he faces an immediate custodial sentence with the prosecution suggesting a starting point of five years and a range between three and six years.

The judge told Southwark Crown Court on Monday: “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 sentence Chowdhury faces offers “every incentive” to fail to surrender, he said, adding: “This is, I must remind myself, a defendant, even with restraint measures in place, with access to substantial funds”.

Jurors found Chowdhury guilty of nine counts of fraud after deliberating for about seven hours.

The defendant wore a large grey knitted jumper and cut a forlorn figure as he stared blankly during proceedings.

The judge accepted the defence’s submission that Chowdhury had attended court despite the pressure of press coverage, but said the fraudster had approached his case “on a somewhat unrealistic basis”.

Judge Weekes added that Chowdhury has “suffered mental health crises”, telling the court: “There can, it seems to me, be few more crushing realisations than the fact of immediate custodial sentence being the most likely in the court’s mind, and the loss of all that he currently holds dear.”

There, therefore, seems to be substantial grounds to believe he “may seek to harm himself or worse”, the judge said.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) 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 after the verdicts 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.”

During the trial, prosecutors said he “exploited” the work-from-home culture which began during the Covid-19 pandemic to hide his multiple jobs and took sick leave from some employers to manage the workload.

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

Chowdhury previously told the court 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.

A Defra spokesperson said: “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.

“This conviction is the result of a thorough and painstaking investigation led by the Defra counter-fraud and investigations team. It sends a clear message that fraud against the public purse will not be tolerated and those responsible will be held to account.

“Working closely with the Crown Prosecution Service, Defra’s accredited financial investigator will continue to use all available avenues to recover the proceeds of Chowdhury’s offending on behalf of taxpayers.

“More widely, this Government has recently strengthened employment checks to identify public sector fraud more quickly and protect taxpayer money.”