A UK civil servant is on trial accused of carrying out a remote-working fraud, allegedly collecting nearly £350,000 while secretly juggling five full-time public sector jobs at once—complete with a video-call makeup stunt to fake illness.
Kashim Chowdhury, 55, stands trial at Southwark Crown Court facing nine counts of fraud, which he denies (BBC). Prosecutors allege that between February 2020 and September 2023, the Whitechapel resident exploited remote-working arrangements introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic to harvest overlapping salaries from eight different employers in total (Hindustantimes).
How Kashim Chowdhury Juggled Five Full-Time Public Sector Jobs
The alleged scheme involved making false representations about his employment status while applying for roles across multiple government departments and public bodies (Yahoo). Chowdhury began working for Tower Hamlets Council in February 2020 before adding a second role with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in April 2021 (Hindustantimes). He held those two positions concurrently for more than a year (Metro).
Over the three-year period, his portfolio expanded to include stints at the East London NHS Trust, 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 (Hindustantimes). By May 2023, prosecutors told the court, he was actively being paid for five full-time positions simultaneously (Hindustantimes). At its peak, his contracted hours amounted to 183 hours a week—surpassing the total 168 hours available in a standard seven-day week (Hindustantimes).
The Teams Video Call Makeup Incident Investigated by UKHSA
As the workload mounted, maintaining performance across multiple government agencies became too much to cope with,
according to prosecutor Lucy Organ (Metro). Chowdhury told employers he needed to work from home to care for an unwell mother and claimed he suffered from mixed anxiety and a depressive disorder, though he failed to submit sick notes to all his employers (Hindustantimes).
In May 2023, Aleesha Adams, his manager at the UK Health Security Agency, scheduled a Microsoft Teams video conference to discuss his frequent absences (Hindustantimes). During the call, Chowdhury appeared on camera coughing, blowing his nose, and looking white (Metro). Ms Adams noticed that his face and neck were different colors and watched as makeup began separating on his forehead, exposing his natural skin underneath (Hindustantimes), (Metro).
“There could be no doubt about it, the defendant had applied make-up to his face for this Teams meeting to try and pretend to his line manager that he was unwell.”
Prosecutor Lucy Organ, Southwark Crown Court
Prosecutors told jurors that the meeting also unraveled when Chowdhury accidentally logged on using a Defra email address (Metro). When questioned, he claimed it might simply be an old account—a response the prosecution labeled a deliberate lie to mask his ongoing simultaneous employment (Metro).
Financial Disclosures and the National Fraud Initiative Investigation
The alleged deception unraveled after the National Fraud Initiative alerted Defra to irregularities in Chowdhury’s employment record (Metro). Financial records presented to the court indicate that between March 2020 and September 2023, his three bank accounts received over £300,000 in credits alongside nearly £250,000 in debits (Metro). In total, prosecutors maintain he collected roughly £350,000 across his multiple public sector roles before the arrangement was flagged (BBC).
Chowdhury denies all nine counts of fraud brought against him, maintaining that he did not act dishonestly or intend to make a dishonest gain (BBC). The trial at Southwark Crown Court remains ongoing (Hindustantimes).