A MAN has been charged with committing credit card fraud while pretending to be a former Bolton Wanderers footballer.

Medi Abalimba, aged 25, allegedly purported to be Chelsea and former Whites winger Gael Kakuta as, it was said, he ran up a tab of about £5,000 at a city centre nightclub in Manchester over the weekend of June 14 and 15.

The defendant is said to have again pretended to be the 23-year-old France youth international when he attempted to buy clothes worth more than £20,000 from a shop at the Trafford Centre between July 1 and 3.

A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said: “On 11 August 2014, Medi Abalimba, of Burton Street, London, was charged with several credit card fraud offences.

"He appeared at Manchester and Salford Magistrates’ Court on the same morning and was remanded into custody.”

Kakuta signed for Wanderers on loan in August 2011 before moving on to Dijon in France in January 2012.

He signed for Chelsea in 2007 but has only made six senior appearances for the club.

He has joined Spanish team Rayo Vallecano on loan for the 2014/15 season and has had a previous loan spell at Fulham.