A man has been charged with defrauding a Manchester night club out of £5,000 – by supposedly pretending to be a Premier League footballer.
Medi Abalimba, of Burton Street, London, allegedly claimed to be Chelsea footballer Gael Kakuta and has been charged with several credit card fraud offences.
He appeared at Manchester and Salford magistrates’ court yesterday morning and was remanded into custody.
The £5,000 bill was run up over the weekend of 14-15 June and was paid for using compromised credit card details at the city centre venue.
In another incident between 1-3 July, a man, again purporting to be the same sportsman, attempted to buy clothing worth more than £20,000 from a Trafford Centre store.
The goods were retained when staff became suspicious.
French youth international Kakuta signed for Chelsea in 2007 after allegedly being tapped up by the London club, which resulted in a suspended transfer ban.
He made only six senior appearances for the club and the 23-year-old has joined Spanish team Rayo Vallecano on loan for the 2014/15 season.
Anyone with information about similar frauds is asked to contact Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040.
Image courtesy of Chelsea Football Club, via Youtube, with thanks
