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Civil servant convicted of fraud after holding five government jobs simultaneously
Kashim Chowdhury, 56, has been found guilty of nine fraud counts after holding several government jobs at once and receiving more than £280,000 in payments. The case raises questions about how he was able to evade workplace checks while exploiting remote working arrangements.
Chowdhury lived in a six-bedroom Georgian townhouse in east London, reportedly worth about £2 million, while working for public bodies including Tower Hamlets Council and Defra. At the peak, he was paid for five full-time roles and contracted for 183 hours a week; he was remanded in custody and is due to be sentenced in January. Separately, his siblings are challenging the transfer of half the house to him shortly before their mother died in 2023.
In short
- Civil servant Kashim Chowdhury was convicted of nine fraud counts.
- He received more than £280,000 while holding multiple public sector jobs.
- His siblings are challenging a transfer of half the family home.
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
The case can be seen as evidence that public employers need stronger checks on attendance, outside work and overlapping contracts, especially where remote arrangements make ordinary supervision harder. Taxpayers are entitled to expect public funds to pay for work actually performed, and clearer controls could protect both public services and honest employees.
The case against
The reported conviction concerns Chowdhury’s alleged conduct, but it does not by itself show that remote working is broadly incompatible with accountability or that every overlapping role went unchecked in the same way. Remote work can widen access to public jobs and offer flexibility; proportionate, well-designed oversight could address abuse without imposing intrusive monitoring or undermining those benefits.
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Originally published by Daily Mail as “Revealed: The £2million Grade II listed four storey Georgian townhouse in fashionable east London where a grasping civil servant juggled five jobs to cheat taxpayers out of £350,000”.