• Published

A civil servant accused of fraudulently juggling multiple government jobs says he was ''surprised'' to have been charged with fraud.

Kashim Chowdhury told the jury at Southwark Crown Court he had not been dishonest in failing to tell his employers he had other government jobs.

"At that time I was just on auto pilot, I was like a robot, I was not thinking clearly," he said.

Chowdhury, 55, from east London, is accused of nine counts of fraud. He denies acting dishonestly or intending to make a dishonest gain.

Between 2020 and 2023 Chowdhury had eight overlapping public sector jobs. He was contractually obliged to work full time and was paid a full-time salary by each organisation. He is accused of fraudulently earning more than £284,000.

In March 2023 Chowdhury began working for the Home Office despite being under contract to work full time at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), the Department for Business and Trade and the Food Standards Agency.

The court was told he started the Home Office job while on sick leave from three of his other jobs.

Prosecuting barrister Lucy Organ asked him: "If you were really sick for work, how were you able to start your work at the Home Office?"

Chowdhury said: "I did not want this job at the Home Office, I was told there would be adequate support and I could work whatever hours I wanted to work."

Organ also asked why he did not submit a sick note to the Home Office "You were using these sick notes to be able to cope. It was all too much wasn't it?"

Chowdhury rejected the suggestion, adding: "I wanted to carry on working."

In May 2023, Chowdhury was contracted to work 183 hours a week, more than the number of hours in seven days.

He told the jury he agreed with his employers to work flexibly and that his work was project or output based. He said this was agreed "informally" via text messages but the phones used to send the texts had gone missing when his house was searched by investigators.

He said that to cope with the workload he would work from 07:00 on Saturdays and Sundays and not finish until 20:00 or 21:00.

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Organ asked him: "Wasn't that a bit much for you?"

"I was house bound, I was looking after my mum," he said.

The prosecution alleges Chowdhury managed to keep his overlapping jobs secret because he worked entirely remotely. He told his employers he was the sole carer for his elderly mother and the prosecution alleges he "exploited this opportunity".

His line manager at the UKHSA, Aleesha Adams, organised a video call with him in May 2023 to discuss his sick leave.

She previously told the court she was surprised when he logged on wearing white make-up because his name led her to expect to see an Asian man with darker skin.

She told the court that as the meeting went on the make-up started coming off his forehead. ''He was sweating, it was like rubbing off so it was darker underneath and darker on the neck."

But Chowdhury denied having worn make-up at the meeting

''That's a smear, I've never worn make-up in my life. At that particular time, I was suffering from anxiety and depression. I had already submitted my sick note, there was no need to put on make-up.''