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Members of an Italian clan of burglars who stole over £1.2m worth of items, including from former NUFC forward Alexander Isak, have been ordered to pay back just £1 each.

Brothers Valentino Nikolov and Giacomo Nikolov, their sister Jela Jovanovic and her son Charlie journeyed to the northeastern of England to burgle multiple homes in April 2024.

The foursome were jailed for between six and 10 years in 2025.

At a criminal assets hearing at Newcastle Crown Court, Jela Jovanovic and the brothers Nikolov were instructed to repay £1 per person while Charlie must pay over a thousand pounds.

Particulars of the Burglaries

The judge previously heard the group arrived by boat in the UK on 27 March 2024 and employed a campervan as their "headquarters", which they stationed at Scotch Corner and Durham service rest stops while utilizing a separate vehicle to search for targets and carry out burglaries.

On 31 March they took more than one million pounds of goods such as high-end fashion, handbags, jewellery and a honor from a residence on Clayton Road in Jesmond, Newcastle, while the residents were away.

The next evening, the crew broke into a home on a private road in Whitburn, and took designer handbags, valuables and shoes worth more than £100,000.

Following surveillance of the football club's facility for two days, they then acted at the residence of Swedish player Alexander Isak in Darras Hall, Ponteland on April 4, taking £10,000 in money, sixty-eight thousand pounds valued of jewelry and the player's £120,000 luxury car.

The group, who were portrayed by prosecutors as experienced itinerant burglars, used hand coverings and face coverings, turned their mobile devices off as they neared their objectives and strapped a number plate, which had been taken from a garage in Chester-le-Street, on to their car with elastic bands.

They were apprehended in the Birmingham area on 13 April.

Court Proceedings and Sentencing

Valentino Nikolov had pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to burglary but was convicted by jurors, while his family members had all entered guilty pleas to the identical accusation.

At the criminal gains session, lawyer Daniel Cordey said every one of the defendants had benefited from their crimes to the amount of £1,266,285.93, which was based on what the victims said they had had stolen.

But Charlie Jovanovic was the only one deemed to have any money that could be "recovered", namely over a thousand pounds which had previously been confiscated by authorities, the judge was informed, with 14 days to be served in prison if he failed to pay.

The other three had no assets or assets so were ordered to make a token amount of £1 per person, with one week in prison the result if the sum was not paid.

Judge Robert Spragg said if they were discovered with assets in the future, "such as operating in Italy in a fast car or owning a property", the prosecution could seek new proceedings to "satisfy the amount outstanding".