A civil servant 'exploited' the work from home culture to secretly hold multiple taxpayer-funded government jobs simultaneously as part of a £250,000 fraud, a court heard.
Kashim Chowdhury, 55, lied about his employment in order to rack up additional roles with various unwitting departments including the Home Office, Defra, and the Department of Health and Social Care.
At one point he was employed by five separate Government departments, all paying him a full-time salary, each worth tens of thousands of pounds.
He allegedly told bosses he needed to work from home to look after his elderly mother, and used sick notes to juggle his workload across various roles.
Chowdhury 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, the court heard.
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.
Prosecutor Lucy Organ told jurors at Southwark Crown Court: 'In summary, this defendant, Kashim Chowdhury, between 2020 and 2023, obtained and held a series of full-time employments in the civil service and associated public bodies at the same time.
'By that I mean he obtained and had more than one full-time job at the same time and was being paid for more than one full-time job at the same time.
Civil servant Kashim Chowdhury, 55, arrives at court for his fraud trial
'He achieved this – having concurrent full-time jobs - by making false representations, false declarations, concerning his existing employment status and employment history.
'He had to because if he told a respective employer he had a full-time job, they wouldn't have given him another one, would they?
'He also made, the prosecution say, continuing implied false representations by having a full-time job and not revealing to his employers that he had other full-time employment.
'In fact members of the jury, you will hear evidence that at times he positively lied about his employment history and having other full-time jobs.
'He concealed that he had multiple simultaneous employments from his employers.
'As a result, he was paid for multiple full-time jobs at the same time.
'We say those jobs were obtained by false representation – fraud – and made a financial gain for himself from this fraud. '
His alleged fraud started in June 2020 - three months after the Covid pandemic struck - when he was applying for jobs in government departments despite working full-time for the local council.
He is accused of fraudulently taking on multiple government jobs at the same time
In one incident, described as 'laughable' by the prosecutor, Chowdhury allegedly wore white make-up during a video call with his boss to seemingly appear ill.
The court heard that Chowdhury had told employers he had 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 suffered.
He then allegedly took sick leave from some jobs while continuing to work in his other positions.
The court heard that Chowdhury was signed off work for some jobs due to 'mixed anxiety and a depressive disorder', but did not hand his sick note to all his employers.
Jurors heard that the alleged frauds came to light after the National Fraud Initiative began investigating.
Chowdhury, of Whitechapel in east London, denies five counts of fraud.
The court heard he also worked for the Department of Business and Trade, the Food Standards Agency, the East London NHS Trust, and Tower Hamlets council.
He appeared in the dock wearing a blue open-neck shirt and a dark jacket, having turned up to court covering his face.
The trial is due to last for around three weeks.