October 23 – In a bizarre case of deliberate mistaken identity, an English lower-league professional footballer who fraudulently posed as a Premier League star in order to live a glitzy celebrity lifestyle has wound up in jail.
Medi Abalimba, a court in Manchester heard, went on a £20,000 shopping spree, stayed at exclusive hotels and even hired a helicopter.
The player joined Derby County in 2009 for more than £1 million but failed to progress and masqueraded himself as Chelsea’s France youth international Gael Kakuta.
Abalimba admitted 12 offences of fraud and dishonesty and was sentenced to four years. Abalimba, who has also had stints with Oldham Athletic, Southend United, Fulham and Crystal Palace and, as a youngster, had trials with Manchester City, Manchester United and Liverpool, apparently called various venues claiming to be the agent of Kakuta before turning up and passing himself off as the player himself.
He paid for goods with stolen credit card details obtained by photographing cards he found in lockers at a gym. In June, he visited a Manchester nightclub and ordered £2,600 worth of champagne while claiming he left his wallet in a limousine. He pre-paid more than £2,000 using stolen credit card details telling staff he would return next day, which he did, ordering more champagne and leaving in a chauffeur-driven car.
The following month, he ordered more than £20,000 worth of clothes, displaying his football skills while shopping but store detectives got suspicious.
Police finally tracked him down at an expensive mansion after a remarkable crime spree that, on one occasion, even included taking four women from Manchester to London in a helicopter.
The court was told Abalimba, who had joined Spanish team Rayo Vallecano on loan for the 2014-15 season, was able to call on his previous football experience and had “some resemblance to the real Gael Kakuta to deceive his victims”.
His legal team told the court he had had a “rough upbringing” and that he “ran with the wrong crowd” after coming to London at the age of five.
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