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

Siblings Valentino Nikolov and Giacomo Nikolov, their sister Jela and her child Charlie journeyed to the north-east of the UK to burgle three houses in spring 2024.

The foursome were imprisoned for from six and 10 years in May 2025.

At a proceeds of crime hearing at the court, Jela and the Nikolov brothers were ordered to repay £1 each while Charlie Jovanovic must pay over a thousand pounds.

Particulars of the Break-ins

The judge was told the group arrived by boat in the United Kingdom on 27 March 2024 and employed a campervan as their "base of operations", which they parked at Scotch Corner and Durham service stations while using another car to scout out targets and execute burglaries.

On March 31 they took over one million pounds of goods including high-end fashion, purses, jewellery and a honor from a house on a street in Jesmond, while the residents were away.

The next evening, the gang entered a house on a private road in Whitburn, South Tyneside, and stole luxury bags, jewellery and shoes worth more than £100,000.

Following surveillance of Newcastle United's facility for 48 hours, they then struck at the residence of Swedish striker Mr Isak in Darras Hall on 4 April, taking ten thousand pounds in cash, £68,000 worth of jewellery and the player's one hundred twenty thousand pound luxury car.

The group, who were described by prosecutors as experienced itinerant thieves, wore hand coverings and face coverings, turned their phones off as they approached their targets and strapped a license plate, which had been taken from a garage in a town, on to their vehicle with elastic bands.

They were arrested in the Birmingham on April 13.

Court Proceedings and Sentencing

Valentino Nikolov had pleaded not guilty to the burglary plot but was convicted by the court, while his family members had all submitted guilty pleas to the identical accusation.

At the criminal gains session, prosecutor the prosecution said every one of the burglars had benefited from their offenses to the value of over £1.2 million, which was determined by what the affected parties said they had lost.

But Charlie Jovanovic was the only one deemed to have any money that could be "recovered", specifically £1,135.50 which had already been seized by authorities, the judge was informed, with two weeks to be served in prison if he defaulted.

The remaining members had no assets or property so were ordered to pay a token amount of £1 each, with one week in incarceration the result if the money was not paid.

The judge Spragg said if they were discovered with assets in the future, "such as operating in Italy in a sports car or possessing a property", the prosecution could seek further action to "satisfy the amount outstanding".