Civil Servant Who Juggled Five Jobs Says He 'Wasn't Thinking Straight', Court Hears
Kashim Chowdhury, 55, told a jury he was "in a panic" when he took on overlapping public-sector jobs that left him contracted to work 183 hours a week. He denies nine counts of fraud.
A civil servant accused of fraudulently juggling multiple public-sector jobs has told a court he was "in a panic" and "wasn't thinking straight" when he applied for yet another role.
Kashim Chowdhury, 55, from east London, is on trial accused of nine counts of fraud, which he denies. Prosecutors say that at the height of the alleged deception he held five jobs on full-time salaries, and that he already had three full-time jobs when he applied for a position at the Department of Health and Social Care.
The jury was told that throughout the period Chowdhury was contracted to work 183 hours a week. Prosecutors allege he exploited the work-from-home culture that began during the Covid-19 pandemic to keep his overlapping jobs secret.
Chowdhury told the court he feared losing his job at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and felt uncertain about his future. He said that in the spring of 2023 he was working for Defra, the UK Health Security Agency and the Food Standards Agency, among others.
He told jurors he had sent out a flurry of applications and that the job offers arrived close together. He added that his mother's health deteriorated in mid-2022, saying: "That overwhelmed me at the time. It just destroyed me."
Chowdhury described the jobs as his "lifeline at the time", calling them a link to the outside world and a distraction from his personal life.
The trial continues.
Source: BBC News — Top Stories — TrendWire reports stories in its own words; facts should be confirmed against the original source.