Kashim Chowdhury, 55, appeared at Southwark Crown Court facing nine fraud counts over what prosecutors describe as an audacious multi-job scheme that at one point had him contracted to work nearly every hour in a week.
The Whitechapel resident allegedly earned almost £350,000 from eight employers between February 2020 and September 2023, with five full-time positions running simultaneously by May 2023. Those contracts totaled 183 hours weekly, a figure that falls just three hours short of the 186 hours contained in seven full days.
Prosecutor Lucy Organ told jurors that Chowdhury’s deception extended well beyond simply accepting overlapping paychecks. She outlined a “laughable” incident from May 2023 when the defendant allegedly applied white makeup before a video call to convince his UKHSA manager that he was genuinely ill. Aleesha Adams, his line manager at the agency, had arranged the Teams meeting to discuss his recent sick leave. Chowdhury appeared on camera coughing and blowing his nose, but Adams noticed his face appeared white while his neck remained a different color.
“There could be no doubt about it, the defendant had applied makeup to his face for this Teams meeting to try and pretend to his line manager that he was unwell,” Organ told the court.
“This almost laughable incident demonstrates, we say, quite how far the defendant was willing to go in his deceit.”
Chowdhury had told employers he needed to work from home to care for his “unwell” mother, the court heard, a claim that formed part of his broader pattern of misrepresentation.
The defendant’s employment timeline began at Tower Hamlets Council in February 2020, followed by a position at Defra in April 2021. During 2022, he worked for East London NHS Trust for four months. After departing the council, he reportedly added roles at the Department of Health and Social Care, UK Health Security Agency, Department for Business and Trade, Food Standards Agency, and Home Office.
Financial records presented to the jury showed over £300,000 in credits across three bank accounts between March 2020 and September 2023, against nearly £250,000 in debits. Organ emphasized that Chowdhury’s fraud involved not merely passive omission but active deception about his employment history and current positions.
“He also made, the prosecution say, continuing implied false representations by having a full-time job and not revealing to his employers that he had other full-time employment,” she added.
“In fact members of the jury, you will hear evidence that at times he positively lied about his employment history and having other full-time jobs.”
Organ continued: “He concealed that he had multiple simultaneous employments from his employers. As a result, he was paid for multiple full-time jobs at the same time.”
The prosecutor concluded that those positions were obtained through false representation and fraud, generating substantial personal financial gain. Chowdhury denies all nine counts.
The case highlights vulnerabilities in remote-work verification systems across multiple government departments during the pandemic period, when Chowdhury began his alleged scheme and when many civil service positions shifted to work-from-home arrangements.