Civil servant found guilty of fraud after secretly working FIVE full-time jobs at once

A civil servant has been found guilty of fraud for working five full-time jobs at the same time.Kashim Chowdhury, 55, was convicted on Monday afternoon at Southwark Crown Court of nine counts of fraud for working multiple government jobs and using sick notes and remote working to juggle them all.The jury found him guilty after he claimed he had met the demands of each role, despite being contracted to work more hours than there are in a week.Mr Chowdhury was at one stage contracted to work 183 hours a week, despite there being only 168 hours in seven days.He lied about his employment status to get a string of overlapping roles across government departments and public bodies, Southwark Crown Court heard previously.Between February 2020 and September 2023, Chowdhury, from Whitechapel, east London, earned almost £350,000 from eight employers, the court heard.This includes more than £280,000 in gross pay from employers for months when he had more than one full-time job, jurors were told.Court artist drawing of Kashim Chowdhury appearing at Southwark Crown CourtPAOn Monday, jurors found Chowdhury guilty of nine counts of fraud after deliberating for about seven hours.Prosecutors said Chowdhury “exploited” the work-from-home culture which began during the Covid-19 pandemic to hide his multiple jobs and took sick leave from some employers to manage the workload.In one incident, described by prosecutor Lucy Organ as “laughable”, Chowdhury allegedly wore white make-up during a video call with his boss to seemingly appear ill, the court heard.Chowdhury previously told the court work was his “lifeline”.He told the court that around May and June 2022, his mother’s health “deteriorated”.He said: “That overwhelmed me at the time.”During the trial opening, the court heard he began working for Tower Hamlets Council in February 2020, before taking a second job with Defra in April 2021.The two roles overlapped for more than a year, the court heard.For four months in 2022, he also held a third position with East London NHS Trust.After leaving the council, prosecutors said Chowdhury continued working for Defra while gaining further jobs with the Department of Health and Social Care, the UK Health Security Agency, the Department for Business and Trade, the Food Standards Agency and the Home Office.Read MoreIn May 2023, he was being paid for five full-time jobs, the court heard.At one point, he was contracted to work 183 hours a week – more hours than actually exist in seven days, the court heard.Prosecutor Lucy Organ told jurors Chowdhury made false representations about his existing employment when applying for the roles.“Clearly, he would not have been employed by his employers if they had known he had multiple other full-time jobs,” she said.The court heard Chowdhury had told employers he had to work from home to care for his “unwell” mother.But Ms Organ said his workload eventually became “too much to cope with” and his performance suffered.The jury was told he then took sick leave from some jobs while continuing to work in his other positions.