Kashim Chowdhury, a British civil servant, held as many as five public-sector jobs between 2020 and 2023 without his employers knowing. In total, he received 419,000 euros.
Added together, his contracts amounted to 183 hours of work per week, even though a week has only 168 hours. On paper, the schedule was therefore impossible to keep.
He was linked to the NHS, the United Kingdom’s public health system, the Department for Business and Trade, and the Home Office. The case also involves the UK Health Security Agency.
On the grounds that he had to care for his sick mother, and later citing his own health problems, Chowdhury had obtained permission to work entirely from home for each of his positions.
The deception lasted for many months. It came to light after a video-conference meeting with one of his managers.
Hood up, wearing dark glasses and a surgical mask, Chowdhury appeared at the entrance of a London court. For years, he had made a fool of the British civil service.
None of his employers knew that he was drawing several salaries at the same time. The overlap involved separate public contracts carried out simultaneously.
The gap between 183 contractual hours and the 168 hours in a week sums up the practical impossibility of the arrangement: Chowdhury could not complete all the tasks set out in his various contracts.
From 2020 to 2023, his total pay amounted to 419,000 euros. The available information describes the overlapping jobs and the remote-working arrangements, without specifying any other outcome.