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Members of an Italian clan of burglars who took more than £1.2m worth of goods, among them from former NUFC striker Isak, have been ordered to pay back just £1 each.

Siblings Valentino Nikolov and Giacomo, their female sibling Jela Jovanovic and her son Charlie journeyed to the northeastern of the UK to raid multiple homes in April 2024.

The group of four were jailed for between a decade or less in May 2025.

At a proceeds of crime proceeding at Newcastle Crown Court, Jela and the Nikolov brothers were ordered to repay £1 per person while Charlie must pay over a thousand pounds.

Details of the Break-ins

The judge was told the gang came by ferry in the UK on 27 March 2024 and employed a campervan as their "base of operations", which they parked at Scotch Corner and Durham service rest stops while using another car to search for targets and execute burglaries.

On 31 March they took more than one million pounds of goods including high-end fashion, purses, jewellery and a honor from a house on Clayton Road in Jesmond, Newcastle, while the owners were on holiday.

The following night, the gang entered a house on a gated cul-de-sac in Whitburn, and took designer handbags, valuables and shoes worth more than £100,000.

Following surveillance of the football club's training ground for two days, they then acted at the home of Sweden player Alexander Isak in Darras Hall on April 4, taking ten thousand pounds in money, sixty-eight thousand pounds valued of jewellery and the player's one hundred twenty thousand pound luxury car.

The gang, who were portrayed by prosecutors as experienced itinerant thieves, used gloves and masks, turned their phones off as they approached their targets and strapped a number plate, which had been stolen from a garage in a town, on to their car with rubber straps.

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 jurors, while his family members had all entered guilty pleas to the same charge.

At the criminal gains hearing, lawyer Daniel Cordey said every one of the burglars had profited from their offenses to the amount of £1,266,285.93, which was determined by what the affected parties said they had had stolen.

But Charlie was the sole individual found to have any funds that could be "recovered", specifically £1,135.50 which had already been seized by authorities, the court was informed, with two weeks to be served in prison if he failed to pay.

The other three had no assets or assets so were ordered to pay a nominal fee of £1 per person, with seven days in incarceration the consequence if the money was not paid.

The judge Spragg said if they were found with property in the coming years, "such as operating Italy in a sports car or owning a property", the prosecution could seek further action to "satisfy the sum outstanding".