Civil Servant Accused of Faking Illness With Makeup to Juggle Five Government Jobs

A UK civil servant is on trial accused of using white makeup and sick notes to fraudulently hold five full-time government jobs at once, earning nearly £350,000 over three years.

Kashim Chowdhury, 55, from Whitechapel in east London, denies nine counts of fraud between February 2020 and September 2023.

Prosecutors told Southwark Crown Court he misrepresented his employment status to secure overlapping roles across multiple departments and public bodies.

The court heard Chowdhury began working for Tower Hamlets Council in February 2020 before taking a second job with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in April 2021.

He later added roles with the Department of Health and Social Care, the UK Health Security Agency, the Department for Business and Trade, the Food Standards Agency and the Home Office.

At one point in May 2023, he was contracted to work 183 hours a week across five jobs, exceeding the 168 hours available in a seven-day week.

Prosecutor Lucy Organ said Chowdhury exploited work-from-home arrangements introduced during the Covid pandemic to conceal his multiple jobs and took sick leave from some employers to manage the workload.

In May 2023, his manager at the UK Health Security Agency, Aleesha Adams, arranged a video call to discuss his sick leave.

Adams told jurors she was “surprised” when Chowdhury appeared on camera wearing white face makeup, as his name led her to expect an Asian man with darker skin.

She said he was “coughing, blowing his nose, saying he was really ill” and held up tissues to the camera.

Adams noticed the makeup began to separate on his forehead during the call, revealing his natural skin underneath, and that his face and neck were different colours.

Organ 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”.

The court also heard Chowdhury “messed up” by logging into the meeting using a Defra email address. He allegedly told Adams it could be an old address, which the prosecutor described as a “lie” to conceal his other employment.

The alleged frauds came to light after the National Fraud Initiative alerted Defra. Prosecutors said Chowdhury received over £300,000 in credits across three bank accounts between March 2020 and September 2023, with nearly £250,000 in debits.

Chowdhury denies all charges, including acting dishonestly or intending to make a dishonest gain. The trial continues.