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Individuals of an Italy-based family of thieves who stole over £1.2m valued of items, among them from former Newcastle United striker Alexander Isak, have been mandated to return only £1 per person.

Brothers Valentino Nikolov and Giacomo Nikolov, their sister Jela and her son Charlie Jovanovic journeyed to the north-east of England to burgle three houses in spring 2024.

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

At a proceeds of crime hearing at the court, Jela Jovanovic and the brothers Nikolov were instructed to pay back £1 per person while Charlie must hand over over a thousand pounds.

Particulars of the Burglaries

The court was told the group arrived by boat in the United Kingdom on 27 March 2024 and employed a campervan as their "headquarters", which they stationed at a service area and Durham service stations while utilizing a separate vehicle to scout out targets and carry out burglaries.

On 31 March they took more than £1m of items such as high-end fashion, handbags, jewellery and a CBE medal from a house on a street in Jesmond, Newcastle, while the residents were away.

The next evening, the crew broke into a house on a gated cul-de-sac in Whitburn, and took luxury bags, jewellery and footwear worth more than £100,000.

After scouting out the football club's facility for two days, they then struck at the home of Swedish striker Mr Isak in Darras Hall, Ponteland on April 4, stealing £10,000 in money, sixty-eight thousand pounds valued of jewellery and the striker's one hundred twenty thousand pound Audi RS6.

The group, who were portrayed by the prosecution as professional itinerant burglars, wore hand coverings and face coverings, switched their mobile devices on silent as they neared their objectives and strapped a license plate, which had been stolen from a garage in a town, on to their vehicle with elastic bands.

They were arrested in the Birmingham on 13 April.

Court Hearings and Rulings

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

At the criminal gains session, prosecutor Daniel Cordey said every one of the defendants had profited from their offenses to the value of over £1.2 million, which was based on what the victims said they had had stolen.

But Charlie was the sole individual found to have any money that could be "realised", namely over a thousand pounds which had already been seized by police, the judge was informed, with 14 days to be spent in jail if he defaulted.

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

Judge Robert Spragg said if they were found with property in the future, "for example driving around Italy in a sports car or owning a property", prosecutors could initiate further action to "recover the sum due".