A civil servant accused of holding five full-time government jobs at once was unable to complete even “very basic” duties properly, a court has heard.
Kashim Chowdhury, 55, allegedly took advantage of the post-Covid shift towards home working to secure roles in several departments without their knowledge, including the Home Office, Defra and the Department of Health and Social Care.
The fraud trial heard that he told managers he needed to work remotely so he could care for his elderly mother. He also allegedly used sick notes to help him juggle his workload.
Colleagues became increasingly frustrated when he failed to attend virtual meetings and delivered poor work, unaware that he was carrying out at least one other full-time job.
On one occasion, Chowdhury allegedly put white make-up on his face in an attempt to convince his bosses that he was unwell, jurors were told.
Witnesses said that, when he did attend work, Chowdhury appeared out of his depth and struggled with routine responsibilities.
Abigail Mounde, his line manager at the Department for Business and Trade between December 2022 and May 2023, described his performance as “very poor”.
Giving evidence at Southwark Crown Court today, she told jurors: “He was not operating at the grade I would expect.
Civil servant Kashim Chowdhury, 55, is on trial for fraud
He is accused of holding down multiple full-time government jobs as part of the alleged scam
“When he first joined the department he didn’t ask any questions about the role.
“Any basic tasks I asked him to do he either did late or not to the standard I would have expected.”
Mounde said Chowdhury also struggled to arrange a meeting with the colleagues he was supposed to work alongside after joining the department.
She said: “He didn’t do this. I wanted him to put in a meeting with the people he was meant to be working with.
“I remember being frustrated that he wasn’t doing it because I had asked him to do it.”
She described the assignment as involving “very basic” tasks.
She added: “It became apparent that I couldn’t set him anything else because he couldn’t do the minimum I had set him.
MORE ON THIS: FBI, Philly Police Dig Up Horsch Home Yard in 7 Missing Women Probe
“I was concerned he wasn’t proactive. He took no initiative which I would expect from someone with experience in project management roles to do.
Chowdhury, pictured arriving at Southwark Crown Court for his trial, denies fraud
“And he never asked any questions.”
She said that she approached HR when she became worried that he would not pass his probation period.
She told jurors: ‘I was worried that he wasn’t going to pass probation and I needed their support.
‘I was told he was very depressed because his mother had been diagnosed with cancer.
‘I referred him to occupational health.’
Chowdhury was described as ‘ineffective’ at his £52,000 salary role at Defra, but told his employers he was struggling because of his mother’s sickness.
Yesterday jurors heard how Chowdhury apparently put the phone down on his boss at the UK Health Security Agency when she called to chastise him for his shoddy work.
Line manager Carol Hedland said: ‘On the call Mr Chowdhury put the phone down on me and said, quotes, I was “badgering him”.’
She added: ‘I would describe his conduct, attitude, productivity, performance and obviously attendance as being very poor.
‘The work that was produced was of substandard quality.’
Jurors heard he earned nearly £350,000 from eight employers over a period of three years, and he was paid more than £280,000 in gross pay from employers for months where he had more than one full-time job.
At one point, Chowdhury was contracted to work 183 hours a week across his various jobs – more than the 168 hours that actually exist in seven days, jurors were told.
Chowdhury, of Whitechapel in east London, denies nine counts of fraud.
The trial continues.
