GREATER MANCHESTER POLICE have charged a man with credit card fraud after he ran up a tab worth thousands of pounds at a nightclub in the city, while impersonating a Premier League footballer.

Medi Abalimba, 25, of Burton Street in London, is also suspected of trying to buy £20,000 worth of clothes elsewhere in the city.

Over the course of one weekend in June, Abalimba – who claimed to actually be Chelsea winger Gael Kakuta – allegedly used “compromised credit card details” to run up a £5,000 tab (€6,271) at a nightclub in Manchester city centre.

Between 1 and 3 July, the 25-year-old raised the suspicions of staff at a at a retail outlet in the city’s Trafford Centre, when he attempted to purchase clothing worth £20,000 (€25,000).

He was charged today with several credit card fraud offences, and appeared Manchester and Salford magistrates’ court before being remanded in custody, according to a statement by Greater Manchester Police.

French footballer Gael Kakuta himself hit the headlines in 2009 after becoming embroiled in a controversy surrounding his transfer from French club Lens to Chelsea.

He is currently on a season-long loan from the London club to Spanish side Rayo Vallecano.