Civil servant who fraudulently racked up £280,000 by secretly working several full-time jobs remotely 'couldn't perform even basic tasks', jury told

A civil servant who simultaneously held down five different full-time government jobs could not perform even 'very basic' tasks properly, a court heard.

Kashim Chowdhury, 55, is accused of exploiting the post-Covid work-from-home culture to rack up roles with various unwitting departments including the Home Office, Defra, and the Department of Health and Social Care.

He allegedly told bosses he needed to work remotely to look after his elderly mother, and used sick notes to manage his workload.

But he would fail to turn up for virtual meetings while colleagues began to grow frustrated at his poor performance – unaware he was working at least one other full-time job at the same time.

At one point, he even applied white make-up in a bid to dupe bosses into thinking he was ill, his fraud trial heard.

When he did attend work, witnesses said Chowdhury appeared out of his depth and unable to complete rudimentary tasks.

Abigail Mounde, Chowdhury's line manager at the Department of Business and Trade from December 2022 to May 2023, described his performance as 'very poor'.

She told jurors at Southwark Crown Court today: 'He was not operating at the grade I would expect.

 '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.'

She said that he struggled to organise a meeting with his colleagues when he first joined 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 these tasks as 'very basic'.

She added: 'It became apparent that I couldn't set him anything else because he couldn't do the minimum I had set him.

'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.

'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.