Key facts
- Chowdhury was contracted to work 183 hours a week across five departments in May 2023.
- He was paid by UKHSA, Defra, the Department for Business and Trade, the Food Standards Agency and the Home Office.
- The judge said Chowdhury faces a very substantial custodial sentence.
- Defra said it would use all available avenues to recover the proceeds of his offending.
- The National Fraud Initiative found 23 cases of polygamous working across London in its most recent report.
Kashim Chowdhury, 56, was found guilty of nine counts of fraud at Southwark Crown Court on November 9, 2026, after holding eight overlapping full-time public-sector jobs between 2020 and 2023. He fraudulently earned more than £284,000 of taxpayers' money and was paid £350,000 in total during that period, the court heard. The judge told him he would face a very substantial custodial sentence.
In May 2023, Chowdhury was contracted to work 183 hours a week across five employers: the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Department for Business and Trade, the Food Standards Agency and the Home Office. His line manager at UKHSA, Aleesha Adams, became suspicious during a video call when she noticed white powder separating from his forehead and believed he was wearing make-up to appear ill, something Chowdhury denied in court. She later discovered he had logged into the call using a Defra email address, and he blamed it on a technical error. She escalated her concerns but the fraud remained undetected until he left the Civil Service in September 2023.
The government's National Fraud Initiative caught him in 2024 through searches of Civil Service payroll databases. Hannah Keenan of the Institute for Government said government departments take hiring decisions independently without joined-up systems. A recent survey of 1,700 civil servants by the think tank Re:State found 76% of respondents thought the Civil Service did not do a good job of tackling poor performers. A Defra spokesperson said Chowdhury abused the trust placed in him and that the department would use all available avenues to recover the proceeds of his offending.
Chowdhury, who had a diagnosis of PTSD in 2015, told the court he took on multiple roles because he feared losing his livelihood after being forced out of a job at the Department for Education in 2013. The prosecution argued his behavior was deliberate and intentional dishonesty. The National Fraud Initiative identified 23 cases of polygamous working across London in its most recent report, uncovering £500,000 of overpaid salaries over a few months. Chowdhury also faces a separate legal dispute with his three siblings over their mother's £2.1m home, which he denies.