- Published
A civil servant who secretly held multiple public sector jobs on full-time salaries has been found guilty of nine counts of fraud.
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who → publish → fraud
Kashim Chowdhury, from east London, had five government jobs that overlapped in the spring of 2023.
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that → have → 2023
He fraudulently earned more than £284,000 of taxpayers' money.
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He → earn → money
The prosecution accused the 56-year-old of ''deliberate, intentional dishonesty'' and of ''exploiting the system''.
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prosecution → accuse → system
After seven hours of deliberation, the jury unanimously found Chowdhury guilty of eight counts of fraud by false representation and one count of fraud by a failure to disclose.
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Chowdhury → find → failure
Between 2020 and 2023 Kashim Chowdhury had eight full-time public sector roles that overlapped and earned him £350,000 in total.
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that → have → total
The prosecution told the court that on application forms he provided inaccurate information about his employment status and failed to disclose to government departments that he was already a civil servant.
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he → tell → departments
Once he secured the roles he didn't tell his employers he was working elsewhere.
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he → secure → employers
He was allowed to work entirely from home because he told his employers he was caring for his mother, whom he lived with in east London.
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he → allow → London
She had dementia and was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2023.
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She → have → 2023
But rather than reduce his workload to look after her, he kept taking on new jobs.
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he → reduce → jobs
In the spring of 2023, when his mother was a few months away from death, he had jobs at 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.
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he → have → Business
During this period he was contracted to work 183 hours a week - more than the number of hours that exist in seven days.
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that → contract → days
Chowdhury said he had taken on so many roles because he feared losing his livelihood after experiencing insecure employment in the past.
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he → say → past
He was made redundant from a job at the Department for Education in 2013 and was given a diagnosis of PTSD.
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He → make → PTSD
He said he had not been thinking clearly when applying for jobs ''because of my stress, distress and trauma and due to my panic at the time".
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he → say → time
But the prosecution barrister, Lucy Organ, told the jury: "He's lied to you in evidence, he's lied to you under oath, which demonstrates the level of deceit he has descended to."
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he → tell → deceit
A succession of his managers told the court about his poor performance.
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succession → tell → performance
Especially damning was the evidence given by Dan McCartney who managed Chowdhury at Defra.
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who → give → Defra
He said he had to "effectively tell him what to do the whole time".
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he → say → what
McCartney said that during video calls Chowdhury had his camera switched off blaming technical problems.
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camera → say → problems
McCartney said this went on for four to five months.
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this → say → months
But McCartney said that because Chowdhury was not subject to any formal performance measures at Defra, he was given a permanent job and remained there for two years.
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he → say → years
The prosecution argued that he used sick notes to cope with his impossible schedule.
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he → argue → schedule
In March 2023, he was on sick leave from four of the organisations he worked for.
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he → work → organisations
But he kept working at the Home Office and did not tell them he was ill.
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he → keep → them
His line manager at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), Aleesha Adams, organised a video call with him in May 2023.
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manager → organise → May
By this point he'd been off sick for three months and she wanted to make a plan to get him back to work.
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she → want → work
She told the jury that at the start of the call he was coughing a lot and waving tissues up to the camera.
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he → tell → camera
She also told the jury that he had been wearing white make-up to try to look ill.
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he → tell → up
Adams told the court that as the meeting went on the make-up started coming off his forehead.
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up → tell → forehead
''He was sweating, it was like rubbing off so it was darker underneath and darker on the neck
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it → sweat → neck
"
Chowdhury told the jury this was a smear and that he had not been wearing make-up.
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he → tell → up
After the call, Adams discovered that he had logged into the call using a Defra email address.
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he → discover → address
When she challenged him about it he blamed a technical error.
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he → challenge → error
Adams grew suspicious.
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Adams → grow → ?
''I believed he was lying,'' she told the jury.
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she → believe → jury
She escalated her concerns up the chain at the UKHSA.
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She → escalate → UKHSA
But his fraudulent behaviour went on for several more months until he left the civil service in September 2023.
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he → go → September
He was finally caught in 2024 by the government's National Fraud Initiative, which conducts searches of civil service databases such as payroll every two years to look for anomalies.
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which → catch → anomalies
The Aporia
