Civil servant accused of juggling five public sector jobs goes on trial in London

A civil servant accused of secretly holding down five full-time public sector jobs at the same time has gone on trial at Southwark Crown Court.

Kashim Chowdhury, 55, from Whitechapel in east London, faces nine counts of fraud relating to the period between February 2020 and September 2023. He denies all of the charges.

What the jury heard

Opening the case on Tuesday 13 October, prosecutors told jurors that Mr Chowdhury used remote working and sick notes to work for several public bodies at once.

The court heard that at one point he was contracted to work 183 hours a week across five roles. There are only 168 hours in a week.

Prosecutors say he earned £349,378 across eight overlapping roles during the period covered by the charges. The court heard that his employers included Tower Hamlets Council, where he started working in February 2020, as well as the Home Office and the NHS.

Jurors were also told that he is alleged to have worn white make-up during a video call with a manager to make himself look ill. The prosecution described that alleged incident as laughable.

How the case came to light

The court heard that the alleged fraud was uncovered after the National Fraud Initiative flagged discrepancies to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), one of the public bodies involved.

The National Fraud Initiative is a data-matching exercise run by the Cabinet Office. It compares information held by public bodies, including payroll records, to find possible fraud and errors, such as people being paid by more than one public employer for jobs that overlap.

Mr Chowdhury denies acting dishonestly or intending to make a dishonest gain.

Working from home and second jobs

The case comes amid wider debate about home working in the public sector, which became widespread during the Covid-19 pandemic from 2020.

Holding a second job is not in itself illegal, but public sector employment contracts usually require staff to declare other paid work and to work the hours they are contracted for. The prosecution's case is that the roles were held dishonestly and without the employers' knowledge.

The trial at Southwark Crown Court continues.