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Individuals of an Italian family of thieves who took more than £1.2m valued of goods, including from ex- Newcastle United forward Alexander Isak, have been mandated to pay back just £1 each.

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

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

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

Details of the Burglaries

The court previously heard the group came by boat in the UK on 27 March 2024 and used a campervan as their "headquarters", which they stationed at a service area and Durham service service stations while utilizing another car to search for targets and carry out thefts.

On 31 March they stole over one million pounds of items including high-end fashion, handbags, jewelry and a honor from a house on a street in Jesmond, while the owners were away.

The next evening, the crew broke into a house on a gated cul-de-sac in Whitburn, and took designer handbags, valuables and footwear valued at more than one hundred thousand pounds.

After scouting out Newcastle United's facility for 48 hours, they then struck at the residence of Swedish player Mr Isak in Darras Hall on April 4, taking £10,000 in money, sixty-eight thousand pounds worth of jewelry and the striker's £120,000 Audi RS6.

The group, who were described by prosecutors as experienced itinerant thieves, used gloves and masks, switched their phones off as they approached their objectives and attached a license plate, which had been taken from a auto shop in Chester-le-Street, on to their car with rubber straps.

They were apprehended in the Birmingham on April 13.

Court Proceedings and Sentencing

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

At the criminal gains hearing, lawyer the prosecution said every one of the defendants had profited 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 sole individual found to have any funds that could be "realised", namely over a thousand pounds which had already been seized by authorities, the court heard, with two weeks to be served in jail if he failed to pay.

The remaining members had no money or property so were ordered to make a nominal fee of £1 per person, with seven days in prison the result if the money was not paid.

The judge Robert Spragg said if they were discovered with assets in the future, "for example driving around in Italy in a sports car or owning a home", prosecutors could initiate new proceedings to "recover the amount outstanding".