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Members of an Italy-based family of burglars who stole more than £1.2 million worth of goods, among them from former NUFC forward Alexander Isak, have been ordered to pay back only £1 each.

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

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

At a criminal assets proceeding at the court, Jela Jovanovic and the brothers Nikolov were ordered to repay £1 per person while Charlie Jovanovic must hand over over a thousand pounds.

Details of the Break-ins

The judge previously heard the group arrived by ferry in the United Kingdom on 27 March 2024 and used a campervan as their "base of operations", which they stationed at a service area and Durham service rest stops while utilizing another car to search for properties and carry out burglaries.

On March 31 they took more than £1m of goods such as high-end fashion, handbags, jewellery and a honor from a house on Clayton Road in Jesmond, while the residents were away.

The next evening, the gang entered a home on a private road in Whitburn, and stole designer handbags, jewellery and footwear valued at more than £100,000.

Following surveillance of Newcastle United's training ground for 48 hours, they then struck at the residence of Swedish striker Alexander Isak in Darras Hall on April 4, taking ten thousand pounds in money, sixty-eight thousand pounds worth of jewellery and the player's one hundred twenty thousand pound Audi RS6.

The gang, who were described by prosecutors as professional touring burglars, wore gloves 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 vehicle with rubber straps.

They were apprehended in the Birmingham area on April 13.

Court Proceedings and Sentencing

Valentino Nikolov had pleaded not guilty to the burglary plot but was convicted by jurors, while his family members had all submitted guilty pleas to the same charge.

At the criminal gains hearing, lawyer Daniel Cordey said each of the defendants had profited from their offenses to the amount of £1,266,285.93, which was determined by what the victims said they had lost.

But Charlie was the sole individual found to have any money that could be "recovered", specifically over a thousand pounds which had already been seized by authorities, the judge heard, with two weeks to be served in prison if he defaulted.

The remaining members 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 sum was not submitted.

The judge Robert Spragg said if they were discovered with property in the future, "such as driving around Italy in a fast car or possessing a property", the prosecution could seek new proceedings to "satisfy the sum due".