UK man convicted of fraud for secretly working five government jobs at once

A 56-year-old civil servant in the United Kingdom, UK, Kashim Chowdhury has been convicted of nine counts of fraud after secretly holding multiple full-time government jobs and fraudulently earning more than £284,000 in taxpayers’ money.

Chowdhury, from east London, held five overlapping government positions in the spring of 2023, concealing his multiple employment arrangements from the departments that hired him.

After seven hours of deliberation, a jury unanimously found him guilty of eight counts of fraud by false representation and one count of fraud by failure to disclose.

The prosecution accused Chowdhury of “deliberate, intentional dishonesty” and “exploiting the system” to secure multiple salaries from public sector employers.

During the proceedings, the judge said Chowdhury faced a “very significant custodial sentence”. He also refused him bail, citing the seriousness of the offences and Chowdhury’s own wellbeing.

Sarah Melo, a specialist prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) Serious Economic Organised Crime and International Directorate, described his actions as sustained dishonesty.

“This was sustained and deliberate dishonesty,” Melo said.

“He knew he could not legitimately hold multiple full-time positions at the same time, but continued to conceal what he was doing.”

A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said Chowdhury had “abused the trust placed in him as a public servant”.

The department added that it would use all available avenues to recover the proceeds of his offending.

Between 2020 and 2023, Chowdhury held eight overlapping full-time public sector positions and earned a total of £350,000, according to evidence presented in court.

Prosecutors told the court that he provided inaccurate information about his employment status on job application forms and failed to disclose to government departments that he was already employed as a civil servant.

After securing the positions, he also failed to inform his employers that he was working for other government departments.

Chowdhury was permitted to work entirely from home after telling his 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. However, rather than reduce his workload to care for her, he continued taking on additional government positions.

In the spring of 2023, he held positions across the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Department of Health and Social Care, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), the Department for Business and Trade, the Food Standards Agency

and the Home Office.

During the period, he was contracted to work 183 hours a week, exceeding the total number of hours available in seven days.