FOUL PLAY
Love Island star Georgia Steel’s footballer ex ‘conned me’ MONTHS after jail release for targeting Thierry Henry’s ex
The ex-footballer conned numerous people to live a faux life of luxury
A NURSE has claimed she was “conned” by a fraudster who posed as a Premier League footballer just months after he was released from jail.
Medi Abalimba, 34, posed as former Chelsea star Gael Kakuta and swindled huge amounts of money from several women - including Love Island’s Georgia Steel and Thierry Henry's model ex-wife.
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Abalimba’s crimes were last year the focus of the ITV X documentary, The Footballer Fraudster.
Abalimba met Love Island's Georgia, 25, in 2019 and was jailed for spending around £32,000 on her credit cards.
And he also targeted footie legend Henry’s ex Claire Henry. He swindled her out of £50,000 and was caged for over four years.
Abalimba is out of jail now but his whereabouts are unknown.
However, he has now been accused of trying to steal more than $1,000 from an American nurse in Spain, reports .
Zhane, 29, says he introduced himself as Gyle when they met in London - but she soon realised something was amiss when they took a trip to Malaga.
While in their hotel room she was alerted that an attempt had been made to take $1,318.68 from her credit card - and $445.06 was withdrawn.
She discovered her cards were missing - and messaged Abalimba, who was out at the time.
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When he returned and fell asleep, Zhane claims she checked her bag to find her cards had returned.
Fearing he was behind the missing money, she then searched through his belongings and found his passport - with his real name.
After googling him she began to believe that she had been “conned”, and packed her bags and left.
She explained: “I'm just thinking I'll buy a flight when I get to the airport because I'm scared and I just want to get out of here.
“It made me feel really scared.”
The Met Police confirmed there was an allegation of an unsuccessful attempt of theft from a credit card in Spain - but did not confirm the allegation was made against Abalimba.
Zhane claims that she was manipulated by Abalimba’s alleged lies.
She explained: “I think he's very good at manipulation and making it seem like he's a normal person - he dresses like a normal person and speaks like he has a normal life.
“I don't know, but it'll never happen again.”
Abalimba's contact details were not immediately available, but MailOnline obtained two phone numbers for him - one of which was unavailable and the other was not picked up.
FRAUDSTER FOOTBALLER
Before his arrest, Abalimba posed as former Chelsea star Gael Kakuta in order to live his faux life of luxury, running up tabs of £15,000 at spots such as Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hyde Park, Corinthia Hotel in Whitehall and Millennium Hotel Knightsbridge.
A taxi company in Derby had taken the call from the so-called Kakuta, with the company's sales manager recalling thinking "ker-ching".
He ordered a Bentley Continental GT and a chauffeur, before going on an £11,000 shopping trip to Selfridges in Manchester that needed a second car just to carry the bags and a visit to a nightclub which saw him order £2,600 worth of Dom Perignon champagne.
Abalimba also took four girls from Manchester on an £1,100 helicopter flight over London, before having them stay with him at an £800-a-night mansion in Berkshire, which he claimed was his.
But it was his shopping trip to Selfridges which sparked his undoing, with a store detective becoming suspicious and calling the police as a security guard prevented his chaffuer from leaving.
I think he's very good at manipulation and making it seem like he's a normal person - he dresses like a normal person and speaks like he has a normal life.
Alleged victim Zhane
The police tracked down Abalimba, who was eventually jailed for four years in October 2014 after admitting three charges of fraud, taking a Range Rover without consent and making off without paying for £104 worth of petrol, while other offences were also taken into consideration.
Abalimba ran up debts of an estimated £163,000, but with no assets or cash to his name there was no financial compensation which could be paid to his victims.
He was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo (then Zaire) before he and his family fled to London amid growing tensions in the 1990s when he was just five.
However, even in jail he continued his schemes, enticing a vulnerable 50-year-old agency nurse working in HMP Moorland into a relationship.
The divorced mum-of-two smuggled in a phone for him before the relationship was discovered and she was sentenced to 20 months of jail time for misconduct in a public office.
Abalimba was released in 2018, and it did not take long to find his next victim in the form of Georgia Steel.
The pair entered a six-week relationship that was never intimate, but saw Abalimba attend Georgia’s 21st birthday party in March 2019 where he met her family.
Abalimba posed as former Chelsea star Gael Kakuta in order to live his faux life of luxury, running up tabs of £15,000 at spots such as Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hyde Park, Corinthia Hotel in Whitehall and Millennium Hotel Knightsbridge.
A taxi company in Derby had taken the call from the so-called Kakuta, with the company's sales manager recalling thinking "ker-ching".
He ordered a Bentley Continental GT and a chauffeur, before going on an £11,000 shopping trip to Selfridges in Manchester that needed a second car just to carry the bags and a visit to a nightclub which saw him order £2,600 worth of Dom Perignon champagne.
Abalimba also took four girls from Manchester on an £1,100 helicopter flight over London, before having them stay with him at an £800-a-night mansion in Berkshire, which he claimed was his.
But it was his shopping trip to Selfridges which sparked his undoing, with a store detective becoming suspicious and calling the police as a security guard prevented his chaffuer from leaving.
The police tracked down Abalimba, who was eventually jailed for four years in October 2014 after admitting three charges of fraud, taking a Range Rover without consent and making off without paying for £104 worth of petrol, while other offences were also taken into consideration.
Abalimba ran up debts of an estimated £163,000, but with no assets or cash to his name there was no financial compensation which could be paid to his victims.
He was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo (then Zaire) before he and his family fled to London amid growing tensions in the 1990s when he was just five.
However, even in jail he continued his schemes, enticing a vulnerable 50-year-old agency nurse working in HMP Moorland into a relationship.
What Abalimba spent some of the stolen money on
- £25,000 bar tab on Cristal champagne in London club
- £5,000 at Manchester bar
- £11,000 on limousines
- £1,100 helicopter tour
- £800-a-night rented mansion in Berkshire
- £4,633 bill at a spa
- £2,397 to hire a Range Rover
- £2,600 on champagne at a Manchester club
- £8,000 at Gilgamesh with 20 pals
- £7,000 at the Corinthia hotel
- £3,000 at Mandarin
- £2,000 at Millennium Hotel
- £1,400 at Bulgari Hotel
The divorced mum-of-two smuggled in a phone for him before the relationship was discovered and she was sentenced to 20 months of jail time for misconduct in a public office.
Abalimba was released in 2018, and it did not take long to find his next victim in the form of ex-Love Island star Georgia Steel.
The pair entered a six-week relationship that was never intimate, but saw Abalimba attend Georgia’s 21st birthday party in March 2019 where he met her family.
He was once again arrested for fraud at Kadie's Club in Mayfair, London, in September 2019, but by then he had already sparked a relatonship with Claire Merry.
While in jail he spoke on the phone to Claire everyday for four months, telling her he had been dispatched to Kuwait on military service.
Upon his "return" in March 2020, he met up with Claire, before she - like Georgia - found mysterious transactions out of her bank account, equating to £50,000.
Abalimba would admit to 15 counts of fraud, using a forged Illinois driving licence and a fake debit card.
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He was jailed for another four years and two months in September 2021.
The Sun has contacted Met Police and the MOJ for comment.
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