Chelsea imposter 'scammed £1,000s from firms'

Updated
Medi Abalimba
Medi Abalimba



Medi Abalimba, a 24-year-old former Premiership footballer, has admitted that he committed fraud, after pretending he was Chelsea midfielder Gael Kakuta and using his 'celebrity' to run up thousands of pounds in dodgy debts.

The Derby Telegraph reported that Abalimba had previously played in the Premiership, but his career suffered a huge setback after an injury. He told the court that he had struggled to cope with suddenly losing his enormous salary and was trying not to lose face with his friends.

He played in the youth teams at Crystal Palace and Fulham, and was paid £1,000 a week at the age of 16 by Southend United. He played for the reserves at Liverpool, and finally signed for Derby County in 2009 for £1.2 million. He was paid £4,000 a week, but after injury damaged his career he was sent to Oldham Athletic in 2011 on a free transfer. In 2012 he was playing for Farnborough Town on £300 a week.
%VIRTUAL-ArticleSidebar-scams-guide%
According to the Daily Mail, in an effort to maintain his lifestyle he claimed to be Kakuta in order to run up debts. Among the businesses he conned was a West End club, where he ran up a bar bill for £25,000, and a Manchester bar where he spent £5,000. He also ran up a bill of £11,600 at three London hotels, and spent £11,000 on limos.

The Mirror reported that he had been tried previously for his £25,000 bar bill extravaganza and received a suspended sentence, but was caught again after trying to use a dodgy credit card to buy £20,000 of clothes at the Trafford Centre.

He pleaded guilty to three charges of fraud, and asked for several other offences to be considered. He will be sentenced later this month, and the judge says he expects to send him to jail.


Fantasy lives of criminals

He's not the first criminal to have adopted another persona in a strange fantasy life. We reported in April this year on a fraudster who had conned his partner of four years into thinking he was a consultant neurosurgeon in order to get her to lend him £36,000. Bizarrely, he was caught after deciding to pretend to be a lawyer too. He won his client's case, but the opposing barrister was alarmed at his poor knowledge of the law and reported him. His lies then started to unravel.

In January this year there was the case of a burglar who stole a BMW X5 worth £70,000 in order to drive around London booking viewings of properties worth £1 million or more. He posed as a Kazakh Oligarch in order to gain access to the properties, where he stole over £800,000 of jewellery - including a £50,000 Rolex from Petra Ecclestone.

If you go a little further back, some truly bizarre stores emerge including Anthony de Clerck, who was jailed in 2008 for a range of scams. He lived various fantasy lives including one as a spy, another as a Belgian aristocrat, one as an army officer on leave, and finally one as a high-flying lawyer. He used his identities to win the confidence of his victims and persuade them to part with their money - before disappearing.

Fraud stories on AOL Money

Scamwatch: weight loss fraud

Financial Ombudsman Service warns on new scam

More than one in eight targeted by pension scams


Advertisement