Civil servant who juggled five jobs says he was 'surprised' to be charged with fraud

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1. 1

   Civil servant who juggled five jobs says he was 'surprised' to be charged with fraud

   BBC NewsPublished Oct 23, 2026Checked Oct 23, 2026

   “Civil servant Kashim Chowdhury is accused of fraududlently earning more than £284,000 by juggling multiple public sector jobs. A civil servant accused of fraudulently juggling multiple government jobs says he was ''surprised'' to have been charged with fraud. Kashim Chowdhury told the jury at Southwark Crown Court he had not been dishonest in failing to tell his employers he had other government jobs. "At that time I was just on auto pilot, I was like a robot, I was not thinking clearly," he said. Chowdhury, 55, from east London, is accused of nine counts of fraud. He denies acting dishonestly or intending to make a dishonest gain. Between 2020 and 2023 Chowdhury had eight overlapping public sector jobs. He was contractually obliged to work full time and was paid a full-time salary by each organisation. He is accused of fraudulently earning more than £284,000. In March 2023 Chowdhury began working for the Home Office despite being under contract to work full time at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), the Department for Business and Trade and the Food Standards Agency. The court was told he started the Home Office job while on sick leave from three of his other jobs.”

2. 2

   Civil Service (United Kingdom) (Wikipedia)

   WikipediaChecked Oct 23, 2026

   “In the United Kingdom, the Civil Service is the permanent bureaucracy or secretariat of Crown employees which supports the UK Government, as well as the Scottish Government and Welsh Government. It is led by a cabinet of ministers of the UK Government chosen by the prime minister. As in other states that employ the Westminster political system, the Civil Service – often known by the metonym of Whitehall – forms an inseparable part of the British government. The executive decisions of government ministers are implemented by the Civil Service. Civil servants are employees of the Crown and not of the British parliament. Civil servants also have some traditional and statutory responsibilities which to some extent protect them from being used for the political advantage of the party in power. Senior civil servants may be called to account to Parliament. In general use, the term civil servant in the United Kingdom does not include all public sector employees.”

3. 3

   The role of perceived risk on dishonest decision making during a pandemic.

   Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis (Dawson & Hanoch)Published Dec 12, 2022Checked Oct 23, 2026

   “Across three preregistered studies, we assessed whether objective risk and perceived risk influenced the decision to behave dishonestly in order to gain access to vaccines and furlough payments during a pandemic. We also assessed the extent to which such dishonesty was deterred by the probability of the dishonesty being detected. We found that heightened health risk perceptions were positively related with lying to obtain a vaccine (Studies 1 and 2), but found no evidence of the same relationship between financial risk perceptions and lying to access furlough payments (Study 2). We also found that the probability of dishonesty being detected had a negative relationship with dishonest behavior (Study 3). In addition, across the three studies, we found that (i) dishonesty was consistently evident in approximately one-third of all of our samples, and (ii) greater dishonesty was associated with older age. We discuss how our findings could be utilized by policy makers to better deter and detect dishonest behaviors during future similar crises.”

4. 4

   Welfare Compliance and Domestic Violence: How Australia's Welfare Fraud Tip-Off Line is Used as a Tool of State Violence Against Women.

   Violence against women (Sleep et al.)Published Apr 29, 2026Checked Oct 23, 2026

   “In this article, we contribute to the literature on state violence against women (VAW) by examining the intersection of domestic violence and welfare fraud tip-off lines. Tip-off lines enable anonymous reporting of suspected welfare fraud, forming part of the punitive welfare-to-work reforms within Western democratic nation states. Via examination of interviews with victims/survivors and community lawyers, alongside analysis of social security appeal decisions, we argue that Australia's welfare system, which claims to prioritize supporting women affected by domestic violence, may instead be complicit in, intensify, and perpetrate VAW through its administrative compliance procedures as a form of state systems abuse.”

5. 5

   Gigification of Nursing Services in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada: Legal, Ethical, and Policy Implications.

   Policy, politics & nursing practice (Bayuo et al.)Published Apr 21, 2026Checked Oct 23, 2026

   “With the short-term nature of gig work, patient safety concerns also exist, particularly for nurses navigating new healthcare contexts. Compounding these challenges, many gig platforms lack standardized mechanisms to verify nurses' credentials or enforce compliance with scope-of-practice regulations. Ethically, this regulatory vacuum perpetuates systemic inequities, as gig nurses may face substandard wages, exclusion from benefits, and exploitative contractual terms.ConclusionWhile gig work offers nurses unprecedented autonomy and flexibility, its unchecked growth risks normalizing precarious labor conditions, eroding workplace protections, and raising patient safety concerns. To sustainably integrate the gig model, legislators must close classification loopholes. Healthcare institutions should implement registries for vetted gig workers and enforce standardized onboarding protocols to maintain care quality. Simultaneously, gig platforms require regulatory oversight to mandate real-time credential verification, wage guarantees, and scope-of-practice safeguards.”