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Members of an Italian family of burglars who took more than £1.2m valued of items, among them from former NUFC striker Alexander Isak, have been mandated to return just £1 each.

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

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

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

Details of the Break-ins

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

On March 31 they stole more than one million pounds of items such as designer clothing, handbags, jewellery and a CBE medal from a house on a street in Jesmond, Newcastle, while the owners were on holiday.

The next evening, the gang entered a house on a private road in Whitburn, South Tyneside, and stole designer handbags, jewellery and shoes worth over £100,000.

After scouting out the football club's training ground for 48 hours, they then acted at the home of Swedish player Alexander Isak in Darras Hall on April 4, taking £10,000 in money, £68,000 valued of jewelry and the striker's £120,000 luxury car.

The group, who were portrayed by the prosecution as professional touring burglars, wore gloves and masks, turned their phones off as they approached their objectives and attached a number plate, which had been stolen from a auto shop in Chester-le-Street, on to their car with elastic bands.

They were arrested in the Birmingham area on 13 April.

Court Proceedings and Sentencing

Valentino Nikolov had pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to burglary but was found guilty by jurors, while his three relations had all submitted guilty pleas to the same charge.

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

But Charlie Jovanovic was the only one deemed to have any money that could be "realised", specifically £1,135.50 which had previously been confiscated by police, the judge was informed, with two weeks to be spent in prison if he defaulted.

The other three had no money or assets so were ordered to pay a token amount of £1 each, with seven days in prison the consequence if the sum was not submitted.

The judge Robert Spragg said if they were discovered with assets in the coming years, "for example driving around in Italy in a sports car or possessing a property", the prosecution could seek new proceedings to "recover the amount due".