The footballer who swindled (ITV1)
True crime is spreading. The only real-life investigations shown on screen used to focus solely on murders, usually serial murders, particularly those involving women or children.
But as public fascination with the psychology of crime continues to grow, recent days have seen two television investigations into credit card fraud: last week’s BBC Confessions of a Teenage Fraudster and now The Footballer Fraudster.
No one died, although victims lost tens of thousands of pounds.
Podcasts have led this charge. Excellent audio programmes investigating different types of fraud include The Missing Cryptoqueen, hosted by a team from Radio 5 Live, and Stolen Hearts, an astonishing account of a bank robbery scam and romance, narrated by Kerry Godliman (well worth a listen).
And if podcasts are the vanguard of crime reporting, the Daily Mail leads the way with the top two on Britain’s Spotify charts.
Medi Abalimba, the so-called footballer conman, tricked at least two high-profile women – Love Island’s Georgia Steel and Claire Merry, ex-wife of Arsenal’s Thierry Henry – into relationships, emptying their bank accounts while showering them with gifts.
Both offer an in-depth look at current trials: one of murderous nurse Lucy Letby, the other of a man accused of conspiring to kidnap, rape and murder Holly Willoughby.
We can expect to see television following the same example, with detailed coverage of criminal trials; although there are currently restrictions on what can be shown, so reconstructions of legal proceedings using actors could become more common.
There has been no indication of the arrest or prosecution of Medi Abalimba, 35, the so-called football fraudster, who is serving his third prison sentence in ten years.
But at the end of this documentary, we hear his voice from prison, making vaguely threatening insinuations to the producers that he might be willing to give an interview, for a price: one million pounds.
Born in the Congo, Abalimba arrived in Britain aged five and proved a promising young footballer, earning a place in Southend’s under-16 programme, although he lied about his age and was 19 at the time.
He then had trials at top clubs and then a move to Derby County, for a salary rumoured to be £4,000 a week.
She found that both men and women loved being around her, fascinated by the glamour of her work and her natural charisma.
When his career was cut short by injury, he maintained the glamour, pretending to be a Chelsea FC star, an American soccer player, a sports problem-solver and a US special forces soldier.
The art of conning, he says, is giving your victims what they want most… whether it’s the perfect boyfriend, the cool best friend, or the perfect client.
He tricked a succession of men into driving him around and even paying his hotel bills, convincing them that he could give them access to the world of wealth and fame.
And he tricked 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 while showering them with gifts.
If you remove the paparazzi trappings, these crimes seem in bad taste.
But the mindset of both victim and perpetrator is fascinating, and forensic psychologist Donna Youngs has analyzed it with precision.
She should do a podcast.
Love Island’s Georgia Steel was one of Abalimba’s victims, as shown in the fascinating new documentary The Football Fraudster
