Key Points
- Southwark Crown Court convicted 55-year-old former civil servant Kashim Chowdhury, of Whitechapel, east London, on nine counts of fraud.
- Chowdhury secretly worked up to five full-time public sector and government jobs at the same time, collecting nearly £350,000 between February 2020 and September 2023.
- He used pandemic-era remote-working arrangements to take on the overlapping roles and handed in false sick notes when workloads clashed.
- By May 2023, his concurrent contracts required 183 hours of work per week, 15 hours more than exist in a seven-day period.
- The Cabinet Office’s National Fraud Initiative uncovered the scheme, and prosecutors are now seeking to recover the funds under the Proceeds of Crime Act ahead of his sentencing at Southwark Crown Court.
London (Oxford Daily) November 9, 2026 – A former civil servant has been convicted at Southwark Crown Court of nine counts of fraud after secretly securing and juggling up to five full-time public sector and government positions simultaneously.
Kashim Chowdhury, 55, from Whitechapel, east London, pocketed almost £350,000 between February 2020 and September 2023 by exploiting remote-working arrangements established during the COVID-19 pandemic, using fraudulent employment details, and submitting sick notes across overlapping roles.
How Did Kashim Chowdhury Manage Up to Five Government Jobs Simultaneously?
As reported by Tristan Kirk of the Evening Standard, prosecutor Lucy Organ explained to the jury that Chowdhury made false representations regarding his employment status on applications to secure multiple roles across government departments and public bodies. Organ told the court: “Clearly, he would not have been employed by his employers if they had known he had multiple other full-time jobs.”
The court heard that Chowdhury’s overlapping employment history began between local government and NHS entities before extending into major central government infrastructure. Between February 2020 and September 2023, he earned over £280,000 in gross pay solely during months where he maintained more than one full-time contract concurrently.
He held positions at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), the Food Standards Agency (FSA), the Home Office, and the East London NHS Trust.
By May 2023, he was being paid for five full-time roles at once, resulting in a contracted commitment of 183 hours a week—15 hours more than exist in an entire seven-day week.
How Was the Remote Working Fraud Uncovered by Authorities?
As reported by legal correspondents at The Independent, Chowdhury informed his various employers that he needed to work remotely from home to care for his unwell mother. However, as the cumulative workload escalated beyond his capacity, his professional performance deteriorated across several roles, leading him to submit sick notes to some employers while continuing to work and receive pay from others.
Suspicion intensified during a video meeting when line manager Adams noticed Chowdhury had logged into a call using an email domain associated with Defra rather than the expected agency address. When questioned, Chowdhury claimed the mismatch was caused by a technical glitch, but the incident prompted internal escalation.
Final confirmation came through data-matching checks conducted by the Cabinet Office’s National Fraud Initiative (NFI), which cross-references civil service payroll and employment records across government bodies to detect anomalies.
Following a seven-hour deliberation, the jury at Southwark Crown Court returned unanimous guilty verdicts on all nine counts of fraud.
As reported by national media outlets, Senior Crown Prosecutor Kevin Hansford of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) stated: “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.”
Background of the Development
The conviction comes amid heightened scrutiny of remote and hybrid working arrangements introduced across the UK Civil Service during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Following 2020, widespread remote deployment allowed department recruitment to proceed rapidly online, which in some instances led to fragmented pre-employment background checks between distinct public sector entities.
The Cabinet Office’s National Fraud Initiative (NFI) executes regular bi-annual sweeps comparing payroll and employment databases across central government, local authorities, and NHS trusts.
Chowdhury’s case highlights systemic vulnerabilities where individual government departments operated isolated recruitment and onboarding processes without real-time cross-departmental payroll checks, enabling multi-jobbing fraud over an extended period.
Predictions: Impact on Public Sector Employees and Civil Service Hiring
This precedent-setting conviction will accelerate structural changes across public sector recruitment, human resources management, and remote working policy:
- Mandatory National Payroll Verification: Central government departments and NHS trusts are expected to implement mandatory real-time payroll cross-checks prior to issuing employment contracts, closing the systemic gaps exploited by multi-jobbing applicants.
- Tightened Remote-Work Supervision: Civil servants and remote contractors will face stricter oversight regarding work-from-home arrangements, including enhanced monitoring of deliverables, system access logs, and secondary employment declarations.
- Increased Asset Recovery Enforcement: Public sector workers attempting similar schemes face heightened prosecution risk, as the Crown Prosecution Service actively uses Proceeds of Crime Act confiscation orders to recover fraudulently obtained public funds.
