By PAUL BRACCHI, SENIOR FEATURE WRITER and RYAN HOOPER, CRIME CORRESPONDENT
Updated:
The basic facts at the heart of this story – which have never been in dispute – are mind-boggling.
asserted
which → update → dispute
For more than three and a half years, Kashim Chowdhury worked for a number government departments at the same time and received multiple salaries.
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Chowdhury → work → salaries
In all, he held eight overlapping jobs across the civil service.
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he → hold → service
He never had less than two full-time posts on the go, sometimes three, and at the peak of the fraud, he had five different bosses: at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra); the UK Health Security Agency; the Department for Business and Trade; the Food Standards Agency and the Home Office.
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he → have → Business
As we said, mind-boggling.
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we → say → ?
The bottom line is that Chowdhury, 56, was paid £349,378.81 for effectively doing nothing.
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Chowdhury → pay → nothing
Yet he asked everyone to believe there was no criminal intent on his part, that he ‘wasn’t thinking straight’ [at least eight times?] when he misled managers about his employment status.
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he → ask → status
No one did – and yesterday he was found guilty of nine counts of fraud, including making false representations and of making a dishonest gain.
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he → do → gain
One farcical fact – in a crowded field – left the jury in little doubt and epitomised the dysfunction in parts of the civil service.
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fact → leave → service
For more than three and a half years, Kashim Chowdhury worked for a number government departments at the same time and received multiple salaries
At the time he was hired by five departments simultaneously, Chowdhury was contracted to work 183 hours per week – more than the total number of hours in seven days, even if, as the prosecutor pointed out, ‘he didn’t sleep at all and worked night and day every day of the week including the weekend’.
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he → work → weekend
This also meant that bona fide applicants were prevented from doing all these jobs.
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applicants → mean → jobs
The wider scandal is that he is perhaps the most egregious example of a trend that is becoming increasingly common in both the public and private sector.
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that → become → sector
The phenomenon, which is costing taxpayers and businesses a fortune, even has its own name: ‘polygamous working’, so ubiquitous has it become since the proliferation of remote working.
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it → cost → working
First, Chowdhury operated in plain sight.
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Chowdhury → operate → sight
He used his own national insurance number throughout the scam.
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He → use → scam
Nothing was made up, which, in its own way, makes what happened all the more shocking.
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what → make → way
How could he have got away with it for so long?
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he → get → it
We could not get an answer from official government channels but the ‘back-office’ services of government departments, such as payroll and HR, are outsourced to external private companies which suggests that in this instance the ‘right arm’, perhaps Defra, didn’t seem to know what the ‘left arm’, say the Home Office or the Department for Business and Trade, was doing.
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arm → get → Business
It is hard to think of another explanation for a civil servant receiving so many simultaneous salaries for so long from effectively the same ultimate employer.
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It → think → employer
Second, even though each manager Chowdhury worked for thought he was of absolutely no use whatsoever – how could he be in the circumstances – little or no disciplinary action was forthcoming.
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action → work → circumstances
Chowdhury even wore white make-up on a video call to appear ill on one occasion, coughing and spluttering for added effect, but his supervisor couldn’t help but notice that the make-up began to separate on his forehead as he was speaking and then, lo and behold, his real skin colour was revealed.
Laughable
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colour → wear → forehead
What isn’t so funny is that he remained in this job as a senior project manager with the Health Security Agency, earning £52,606 a year, for 18 months (when, as we know, he was also working for four other departments and getting equally bad reviews).
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he → remain → reviews
Individual managers were not to blame.
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managers → blame → ?
Sacking anyone in the public sector is an onerous task, made even more difficult today by new workers’ rights being introduced by the Government, especially when staff claim, as Chowdhury did, he was suffering from stress – ‘mixed anxiety and depressive disorder’, to quote one medical certificate – exacerbated by the deteriorating health of his mother who had cancer and the recurrence of post-traumatic stress disorder.
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who → sack → disorder
The condition, diagnosed a decade ago, related to a personal injury payment after he was forced out of the Department for Education, he told Southwark Crown Court.
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he → diagnose → Court
There can be no argument he got £10,000 in compensation from the department but PTSD is commonly associated with soldiers returning from war and people who have been involved in life-changing traumas, such as a serious road accident or being the victim of an assault.
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who → get → assault
Chowdhury’s civil service career has been embroiled in controversy, of one kind or another, for many years.
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career → embroil → years
Chowdhury's fraudulent activities began after Covid when he exploited the work from home and sick note culture
But there is one revelation that has gone unreported.
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that → begin → home
He was sacked, according to a whistleblower who spoke to the Daily Mail, after it was discovered that, contrary to the ‘declaration of interest’ form he completed claiming no other employment, he had, in fact, also been working for Defra for a considerable time.
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he → sack → time
Had this information been shared, then you would probably not be reading about Chowdhury today because his fraud would have been dramatically curtailed.
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fraud → share → Chowdhury
Instead, he continued working for Defra and other government departments for another year, until July 2023, when police forced entry into his address and interviewed him under caution.
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police → continue → caution
Chowdhury was finally charged with nine counts of fraud in April 2025.
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Chowdhury → charge → April
By then, he had already been rehired by Tower Hamlets, the source said, on a fixed-term contract in the homelessness service, which was later made permanent.
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which → rehire → service
‘I kid you not,’ the source said.
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source → kid → you
‘Nobody knows how or why.
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Nobody → know → ?
Not only were they going to give him another permanent contract, he was also in line for promotion and a new salary in excess of £60,000 a year.’
Chowdhury was only believed to have been dismissed from Tower Hamlets last year.
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Chowdhury → go → Hamlets
The authority was approached for comment but at the time of writing had neither confirmed nor denied these allegations.
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authority → approach → allegations
‘He was a bit odd,’ the person who worked with him at the council, said.
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who → work → council
‘I only saw him once in the office.
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I → see → office
It was the middle of the summer and he was wearing a bobble hat.
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he → wear → hat
…and 34 more, not listed.
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