What We Know About the Civil Servant Guilty of Five-Job Fraud

A London civil servant, Kashim Chowdhury, 56, was found guilty on Nov. 9, 2026, of nine counts of fraud after holding five overlapping full-time government jobs and collecting more than £284,000 he was not entitled to, the Crown Prosecution Service said, as reported by BBC News. A jury returned the verdict after seven hours of deliberation, convicting him of eight counts of fraud by false representation and one count of fraud by failure to disclose, according to the BBC.

What roles did Chowdhury hold, and when?

Between 2020 and 2023, Chowdhury took on eight full-time public sector positions that overlapped, earning £350,000 in total, the BBC reported. By spring 2023 he was simultaneously employed at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 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 — six departments at once. During that stretch he was contracted to work 183 hours a week, more hours than exist in a seven-day week, according to the BBC's account of the trial.

How did he get hired without departments noticing?

Prosecutors told the court Chowdhury gave inaccurate information about his employment status on application forms and did not disclose to hiring departments that he was already a civil servant, the BBC reported. Once hired, he did not tell those employers he was working elsewhere. He was permitted to work entirely from home after telling employers he was caring for his mother, who had dementia and was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2023, rather than reducing his workload, per the BBC.

What did prosecutors and the court say about intent?

"This was sustained and deliberate dishonesty," said Sarah Melo, a specialist prosecutor with the CPS Serious Economic Organised Crime and International Directorate, per the BBC. "He knew he could not legitimately hold multiple full-time positions at the same time, but continued to conceal what he was doing." Chowdhury told the court he took on the roles out of fear of losing his livelihood after being made redundant from the Department for Education in 2013, a redundancy followed by a PTSD diagnosis, and said he "had not been thinking clearly" because of "stress, distress and trauma," the BBC reported. The judge said Chowdhury faces a "very significant custodial sentence" and denied bail, citing both the severity of the offense and Chowdhury's own wellbeing, according to the BBC.

What happens to the money and to Chowdhury now?

A Defra spokesperson said Chowdhury "abused the trust placed in him as a public servant" and that the department would "use all available avenues to recover the proceeds" of the offending, the BBC reported. Sentencing has not yet occurred, per the available reporting.

By the numbers

• £284,000+ — amount prosecutors say Chowdhury fraudulently earned
• £350,000 — total pay across eight overlapping roles, 2020–2023
• 183 hours — weekly hours he was contracted to work at one point in spring 2023
• 9 — fraud counts on which the jury returned guilty verdicts
• 6 — government departments employing him simultaneously by spring 2023

Source: BBC News