The Footballer Fraudster (ITV1)
True crime is spreading. The only real-life investigations on screen used to focus solely on murder — usually serial killings, particularly those involving women or children.
But as the public fascination with the psychology of crime continues to grow, recent days have seen two television probes into credit card fraud: last week, the BBC’s Confessions Of A Teenage Fraudster, and now, The Footballer Fraudster.
No one died, though victims lost tens of thousands of pounds.
Podcasts have led this shift. Excellent audio shows investigating very different types of fraud include The Missing Cryptoqueen, by a Radio 5 Live team, and Stolen Hearts, a jaw-dropping account of a bank-robbery-and-romance scam, narrated by Kerry Godliman — well worth a listen.
And if podcasts are the vanguard of reporting crime, the Daily Mail is leading the way with Britain’s top two in the Spotify charts.
Medi Abalimba, the so-called Footballer Fraudster duped at least two well-known women — Love Island’s Georgia Steel, and Claire Merry, ex-wife of Arsenal’s Thierry Henry — into relationships, emptying their bank accounts as he showered them with gifts
Both provide in-depth analysis of current trials: one of killer nurse Lucy Letby, the other of a man accused of plotting to kidnap, rape and murder Holly Willoughby.
We can expect to see TV following suit, with detailed coverage of criminal trials — currently there are restrictions on what can be shown though, so reconstructions of legal proceedings using actors might become more common.
Nothing was glimpsed of the arrest or prosecution of 35-year-old Medi Abalimba, the so-called Footballer Fraudster, serving his third jail sentence in ten years.
But at the end of this documentary, we did hear his voice from prison, making vaguely threatening hints to the producers that he might be prepared to give an interview, at a price — £1 million.
Born in Congo, Abalimba came to Britain aged five and proved a promising young footballer, earning a place in Southend’s under-16 programme — though he lied about his age and was 19 at the time.
Trials for major clubs followed with a stint at Derby County, on a rumoured £4,000 a week.
He discovered both men and women loved being around him, entranced by the glamour of his job and his natural charisma.
When his career was cut short by injury, he kept the glamour going — pretending to be a Chelsea FC star, an American footballer, a sports fixer and a U.S. special forces soldier.
The art of the con, he worked out, lies in giving victims what they want most . . . whether that’s the perfect boyfriend, the cool best mate or the perfect client.
He tricked a succession of men into chauffeuring him and even paying his hotel bills, by convincing them he could give them access to the world of wealth and fame.
And he duped at least two well-known women — Love Island’s Georgia Steel, and Claire Merry, ex-wife of Arsenal’s Thierry Henry — into relationships, emptying their bank accounts as he showered them with gifts.
Strip away the paparazzi trappings and these crimes are tawdry.
But the mindset of both victim and perpetrator is fascinating, and forensic psychologist Donna Youngs dissected it with precision.
She ought to do a podcast.
Love Island’s Georgia Steel was one of Abalimba’s victims, as shown in fascinating new documentary The Football Fraudster
