Man earned $463,000 by secretly working 5 government jobs — until one manager spotted his makeup trick
As he sweated, the makeup rubbed off his forehead, showing darker skin underneath.
Greed can push people to cross lines they never thought they would. For 56-year-old Kashim Chowdhury from East London, it started with a fear of losing his livelihood. That fear quickly spiralled into a brazen scheme to hold five overlapping full-time civil service jobs at once. Working remotely under the excuse of caring for his dying mother, he pocketed approximately $463,000 in illegal taxpayer money before a sloppy mistake. That mistake was caught by his manager. It finally exposed his lies and landed him nine fraud convictions, as reported by the BBC on November 10, 2026.
Fear sparks a secret scheme
Chowdhury's troubles began after he was made redundant from a job at the Department of Education in 2013, and was diagnosed with PTSD. He later told the court that panic over losing his livelihood clouded his judgement when applying for jobs. Between 2020 and 2023, Chowdhury earned almost $463,000 (£350,000) from eight public-sector employers, including more than $370,000 (£280,000) during periods when he held multiple full-time jobs. He also secured remote work by claiming he needed to care for his mother, Faijun Nessa, who lived with him and had dementia.
Juggling five paychecks at once
By spring 2023, his mother had terminal cancer, and doctors told him she only had months to live. That didn't stop him from adding to his workload. He held full-time jobs across major bodies like Defra, the Home Office, and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). His actual work suffered badly. At Defra, manager Dan McCartney had to "effectively tell him what to do the whole time," while Chowdhury kept his camera off for months due to supposed technical glitches. Still, without strict performance checks, he landed a permanent post there.
Makeup, sweat, and slip-ups
To survive this impossible schedule he had built, Chowdhury heavily relied on sick leave. In March 2023, he took leave from four departments while quietly continuing his work at the Home Office. Things unraveled during a May 2023 video call with UKHSA manager Aleesha Adams. After three months off sick, Chowdhury coughed into tissues and wore pale makeup to look ill. As he sweated, the makeup rubbed off his forehead, showing darker skin underneath. Worse yet, he accidentally joined the call using a Defra email address. "I believed he was lying," she told the jury after reporting him.
Overemployment in the U.S.A.
What Chowdhury did was extreme, but it's not unusual for people to work two jobs at once. A two-day survey (October 4 - 5, 2021) by ResumeBuilder of 1,250 full-time remote workers found that 69% had a second job. Of those surveyed, 37% said they held another full-time job, while 32% had a part-time side hustle. Chowdhury’s case went far beyond that kind of ordinary moonlighting, however, with prosecutors saying he held as many as five full-time government jobs at the same time.
Arrest, conviction and family feud
The government's National Fraud Initiative soon flagged his double-dealing to Defra. Police arrested Chowdhury in July 2023, and the civil service fired him two months later. Following a seven-hour deliberation, a jury convicted him of nine counts of fraud. Prosecutor Sarah Melo noted that his actions showed "sustained and deliberate dishonesty." Outside criminal court, Chowdhury now faces a High Court battle with his siblings. They accuse him of pressuring their nearly blind, Bengali-speaking mother into signing over half of her $2.7 million home just days before her death, a claim he denies.
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