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Members of an Italian family of thieves who stole over £1.2m worth of items, including from former Newcastle United forward Alexander Isak, have been mandated to return only £1 per person.

Siblings Valentino and Giacomo Nikolov, their female sibling Jela and her son Charlie travelled to the north-east of the UK to burgle three houses in spring 2024.

The foursome were jailed for between a decade or less in May 2025.

At a criminal assets hearing at the court, Jela Jovanovic and the Nikolov brothers were ordered to pay back £1 each while Charlie Jovanovic must pay over a thousand pounds.

Particulars of the Break-ins

The court was told the gang came by boat in the United Kingdom on March 27, 2024 and used a RV as their "base of operations", which they parked at Scotch Corner and Durham service stations while using a separate vehicle to scout out properties and carry out thefts.

On 31 March they took more than one million pounds of goods such as high-end fashion, purses, jewelry and a CBE medal from a residence on Clayton Road in Jesmond, while the owners were away.

The following night, the crew entered a home on a gated cul-de-sac in Whitburn, South Tyneside, and took luxury bags, valuables and footwear worth more than £100,000.

After scouting out the football club's training ground for two days, they then acted at the home of Swedish striker Alexander Isak in Darras Hall, Ponteland on April 4, stealing ten thousand pounds in money, sixty-eight thousand pounds valued of jewellery and the player's £120,000 Audi RS6.

The group, who were portrayed by prosecutors as experienced touring burglars, wore hand coverings and face coverings, switched their phones on silent as they neared their objectives and attached a license plate, which had been stolen from a garage in a town, on to their car with elastic bands.

They were apprehended in the Birmingham on 13 April.

Legal Hearings and Rulings

Valentino had pleaded not guilty to the burglary plot but was found guilty by the court, while his family members had all entered admissions to the same charge.

At the criminal gains session, lawyer Daniel Cordey said each of the defendants had benefited from their offenses to the value of £1,266,285.93, which was based on what the victims said they had lost.

But Charlie Jovanovic was the only one found to have any funds that could be "recovered", specifically over a thousand pounds which had already been seized by authorities, the judge heard, with 14 days to be spent in jail if he failed to pay.

The other three had no assets or property so were ordered to pay a token amount of £1 per person, with one week in incarceration the consequence if the sum was not submitted.

Judge Robert Spragg said if they were discovered with assets in the future, "such as operating Italy in a sports car or owning a home", prosecutors could seek new proceedings to "satisfy the sum outstanding".