A civil servant who exploited the work-from-home culture to take multiple overlapping government jobs has been found guilty of fraud on his birthday.
asserted
who → exploit → birthday
Shameless Kashim Chowdhury illicitly racked up more than £280,000 of taxpayer cash by lying to potential and current employers about his secret stash of jobs.
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Chowdhury → rack → jobs
Once on the payroll, he took advantage of post-Covid remote working arrangements to juggle up to five jobs at one time from his £2million four-storey Grade II-listed home in trendy east London.
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he → take → London
He took sick days and holidays in an attempt to manage his workload and keep the ruse going, allegedly applying make-up to appear ill on a video call with bosses, although his performance was generally regarded to be poor.
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performance → take → bosses
Chowdhury, who was often handed senior project manager roles with salaries of up to £52,000, said he was suffering poor mental health and was coping with his terminally ill mother's care.
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he → hand → care
He denied trying to deceive employers, claiming evidence proving his innocence was lost by investigators.
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He → deny → investigators
But he was convicted of nine counts of fraud by jurors at Southwark Crown Court after prosecutors said he 'positively lied about his employment history and having other full-time jobs'.
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he → convict → jobs
He looked straight ahead as the unanimous verdicts were returned.
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verdicts → look → ?
And it can now be revealed he is also locked in a bitter legal battle with his siblings over the future of their dead mother's six-bedroom home off Brick Lane.
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he → reveal → Lane
Chowdhury, whose identity was first revealed by the Mail in April last year, will be sentenced at a later date.
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identity → reveal → date
The shamed former Whitehall worker, pictured exclusively by the Mail, attempted to hide his face as he made his way into his trial at Southwark Crown Court each day
Kashim Chowdhury has been convicted of fraud after taking on multiple simultaneous civil servant jobs
The court heard Chowdhury, who turned 56 on Monday, began working for Tower Hamlets Council in February 2020, before taking a second job with Defra in April 2021.
This was despite him going through the Government's vetting procedures, designed to ensure rogue agents do not make it into Whitehall.
By September 2023, he had taken on nine different full-time jobs with various government departments and public bodies, including the Home Office and the Department of Health and Social Care.
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he → sham → Health
At its height, in May 2023, he was being paid for five full-time roles, unbeknown to bosses.
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he → pay → bosses
This meant he was contracted to work 183 hours a week – more than the 168 hours which actually exist in seven days.
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which → mean → days
One of these jobs was at the UK Health Security Agency, where his work during his seven-month stint between 2022 and 2023 was described by his project line manager as 'very poor'.
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work → describe → manager
Colleague Carol Hedland told jurors: 'I would describe his conduct, attitude, productivity, performance and obviously attendance as being very poor.'
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I → tell → conduct
She said she tried to raise the matter with Chowdhury over the telephone, but he accused her of 'badgering' him and hung up.
Another former colleague, at the Home Office, described how Chowdhury would miss Teams meetings, and was 'incredibly rude' in a catch-up meeting to discuss his dismal performance during his probation period.
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Chowdhury → say → period
Richard Arkless said: 'He said all offers of help were just for show, he wasn't interested in the job.
'
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he → say → job
He then went on sick again.
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He → go → ?
He had not improved his conduct, in fact it diminished.'
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it → improve → fact
Former colleagues told The Mail Chowdhury lived like a hermit and was not prone to extravagance, while the court heard he had squirrelled away £300,000 during the three-year fraud period.
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he → tell → period
Prosecutor Lucy Organ told the court Chowdhury was 'exploiting decent, honest people who do not think you would have two full-time jobs at the same time'.
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you → tell → time
She said: 'I asked Mr Chowdhury if it was acceptable to have two full-time jobs at the same time for a year.
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it → say → year
After giving his normal response about his mental health being poor at the time
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health → give → time
, his actual response was: it never crossed his mind it was a problem to have two full-time jobs at the same time.
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it → cross → time
He can't say, "yes I think that's dishonest."
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that → say → ?
He knows you (jurors), as reasonable people will think it's dishonest, he's in a Catch-22 and says: "It didn't cross my mind."
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It → know → mind
And it can be revealed he is also fighting a civil claim from his siblings over their dead mother's £2million home off Brick Lane
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he → reveal → Lane
Chowdhury denied committing fraud and said he was struggling with mental health issues and caring for his terminally ill mother
'
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he → deny → mother
It very much did cross his mind.
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It → cross → mind
He sought to hide it at every time.
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He → seek → time
You only seek to hide it if there's something wrong with what you are doing.'
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you → seek → what
Chowdhury denied dishonesty and said he had failed to disclose some of his overlapping jobs because he was suffering from stress, panic and post-traumatic stress disorder related to a previous job.
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he → deny → job
He told jurors: 'I wasn't checking what I was saying or doing on those (job application) forms.
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I → tell → forms
I just wanted to hit the submit button.'
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I → want → button
He accepted that he had failed to complete employment forms accurately but added: 'I do not believe there was criminal intent.'
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I → accept → forms
He said the jobs were 'a distraction' from issues in his personal life, including his mother's deteriorating health.
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jobs → say → health
He also claimed that it gave him 'a link to the outside world', despite working almost entirely remotely, and often refusing to turn on his camera for meetings or attend staff away days.
And he told jurors he believed criticisms of his performance had been unfair.
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criticisms → claim → performance
But he admitted he could never have hoped to fulfil the contracted hours of several simultaneous jobs.
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he → admit → jobs
'Practically you can never do that.
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you → do → that
The number of hours, that's impossible,' he said.
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he → say → hours
…and 39 more, not listed.
The Aporia
