By Sam Tobin
LONDON (Reuters) – A British government employee lied about working as an analyst for signals intelligence agency GCHQ and as a senior Cabinet Office official to try and get senior roles, prosecutors told a London court on Thursday.
Ifthikhar Alam, 25, is charged with three counts of fraud by false representation for allegedly lying about his work history to gain employment.
One charge alleges Alam lied between October 2021 and February 2025 about working as an intelligence analyst for GCHQ.
Alam is also charged with claiming in 2024 to have worked in the National Crime Agency’s Investigatory Powers Unit and as the head of Western Balkans in the Cabinet Office.
He appeared in the dock at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday and indicated not guilty pleas to all three charges.
Prosecutor Kir West-Hunter said Alam worked for the National Crime Agency between June 2023 and February this year, when he was dismissed for misconduct.
She said the three charges related to “applications for three posts within the civil service … for the National Crime Agency, the Joint Maritime Security Centre and the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology”.
West-Hunter said Alam was initially employed by the Cabinet Office and successfully applied for a job at the National Crime Agency.
Alam later applied for the role of deputy director of strategy and policy at the Joint Maritime Security Centre, West-Hunter added, and “a number of assertions he made in his application form and at interview were demonstrably false”.
Judge Annabel Pilling granted Alam bail to next appear at Southwark Crown Court on May 29.
(Reporting by Sam Tobin; editing by Sarah Young)
