Sestanovich was one of seven men jailed for the raid

Ashley Sestanovich, an ex-body double for Arsenal's Thierry Henry, used to play for Grimsby and Sheffield United.

He was convicted of conspiracy to rob a roofing firm in Streatham, south London, in June 2005.

Damien Ennis, 26, and Hallroy Reid, 40, were convicted of the murder of Thomas Fahey, 42, who was shot in the chest during the raid.

Mr Fahey was visiting his brother at the family firm when the raid took place.

He was shot when he chased the men as they tried to make off.

Role model

Ennis, from Tulse Hill and Reid, from Battersea, both south London, were jailed for life with minimum terms of 30 and 35 years respectively.

The judge has also recommended the pair be deported to Jamaica.

Sestanovich was said to have been a role model in the south London neighbourhood of Clapham where he grew up.

He won an FA Cup Player of the Round award while on loan at Scarborough.

Ennis and Reid both denied murder

He was playing for non-league Farnborough Town when he told the robbers when pay-day was and how to get into the firm's offices.

Judge Giles Forrester told him: "Your occupation is one of a professional footballer, for which you have talent.

"Nevertheless you chose to engage yourself with the likes of Ennis and on this occasion you played your part in the planning of this robbery, with the appalling consequences which followed."

Four other men were also sentenced for their part in a series of violent raids carried out by the gang. They all received indeterminate sentences.

Michael Walker, 39, of Brixton, and Gilroy Goode, 39, of Thornton Heath, were found guilty of robbery and possessing firearms, both receiving minimum terms of eight years.

Dwayne Blake, 28, of West Dulwich, and Owen Morgan, 31, of Brixton, admitted robbery and a firearms charge. Blake was given a minimum term of nine years and Morgan eight years.