GRAYS Athletic have been forced to pay five months wages to convicted criminal and disgraced footballer Ashley Sestanovich.

An FA disciplinary panel has ruled they must pay the cash to Sestanovich, a high-profile signing at the start of last season who eventually only played in one pre-season friendly for the club.

Days after that he was arrested and charged with conspiracy to rob and in December last year found guilty. In April this year he got eight years in jail for his part in a raid in which 41-year-old father-of-one Thomas Fahey was murdered.

The FA have ruled that Grays were in breach of FA regulations by terminating his contract prior to his conviction and they have been forced to pay him wages, believed to be in the region of £14,000.

A Grays Athletic spokesman said: "Mr Sestanovich had only played one game before being arrested in relation to an offence which happened prior to Mr Sestanovich joining us.

"When he was arrested Mr Sestanovich falsely stated to the club that he was being held on remand due to motoring offences.

"Once the full details of the offence were disclosed Mr Sestanovich was served with 14 days notice of termination of his contract which was cleared by the Football Conference. Mr Sestanovich appealed against this through the FA which ruled in his favour."

During the FA hearing Grays Athletic secretary, Phil O'Reilly, pointed out the current FA players contract does not cover disclosure of information, the panel agreed that this issue needs to be discussed further and debated on to ensure that no other club finds its self in a similar situation.

However, Grays Athletic have been given until December 31, 2007 to pay the disputed part of his contract, which is approximately five months salary.

Sestanovich's football career included spells at Sheffield United, Manchester City and Nottingham Forest and he once acted as a body double for Arsenal captain Thierry Henry in a Nike advertisement. However his behaviour, on and off the field, regularly courted controversy and he slipped into the non-League game.

Sestanovich, of Mandeville House, Notre Dame Estate, Clapham, joined a year after the bungled raid in which Mr Fahey was murdered by Sestanovich's co-conspirators, armed robbers Hallroy Reid and Damion Ennis. Ironically the aim of the robbers was to steal £11,000, less than the part Croatian and part Ghanaian footballer has got from Grays. The robbery failed when have a go hero chased the raiders and was shot.

Grays' spokesman added: "Much as it sticks in our craw to have to pay a substantial amount of money to a convicted criminal who did nothing for this football club, we might have understood it better had we been asked to pay it to the family of the victim of this crime.

"Perhaps Mr Sestanovich might have a pang of conscience and do the decent thing and, if he is at all remorseful rather than greedy, ask us to do just that!"