Civil servant wore make up so he could juggle five jobs from home, court hears
Kashim Chowdhury is accused of fraudulently juggling multiple government jobs while working from home.
Civil servant wore make up so he could juggle five jobs from home, court hears
A civil servant is accused of making nearly £350,000 a year by holding down five full-time public sector jobs at once, while using sick notes and working from home to manage the workload.
Kashim Chowdhury is said to have held several government posts between February 2020 and September 2023.
Jurors at Southwark Crown Court were told he wore white make up during a video call with his boss in an attempt to look unwell, but the make up started to peel from his skin.
Chowdury, 55, from east London, is on trial facing nine counts of fraud, which he denies. He also denies acting dishonestly or intending to make a dishonest gain.
The jury heard that Chowdhury secured jobs by making "false representations" about his employment status when applying. Over three years, he is said to have held overlapping roles at Tower Hamlets Council in east London, the Home Office, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the UK Health Security Agency and the Department of Health and Social Care.
The court was told that in 2023, his manager at the Health Security Agency, Aleesha Adams, arranged a video call with him to discuss his sick leave.
Ms Adams says Chowdhury had make-up on his face to seem ill, and that during the meeting the make up began to come away on his forehead, revealing his real skin beneath. At the time of the call, he is alleged to have been receiving pay for five full-time jobs.
Lucy Organ, prosecuting, told the court: "There could be no doubt about it, the defendant had applied make up to his face for this Teams meeting to try and pretend to his line manager that he was unwell.
"This almost laughable incident demonstrates, we say, quite how far the defendant was willing to go in his deceit."
Prosecutors say Chowdhury "exploited" the work-from-home culture that emerged during the Covid pandemic. The court heard that Chowdhury told employers he needed 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 declined.
The court heard he was signed off from some jobs because of "mixed anxiety and a depressive disorder", but he did not give his sick note to all of his employers.
Jurors were told the alleged fraud was uncovered after the National Fraud Initiative alerted Defra to it.
The trial continues.