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Members of an Italian family of thieves who stole more than £1.2m worth of items, among them from ex- Newcastle United forward Alexander Isak, have been mandated to return just £1 each.

Siblings Valentino Nikolov and Giacomo Nikolov, their female sibling Jela Jovanovic and her child Charlie Jovanovic journeyed to the north-east of England to burgle multiple homes in spring 2024.

The foursome were imprisoned for from a decade or less in May 2025.

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

Particulars of the Burglaries

The court was told the gang arrived by ferry in the UK on 27 March 2024 and used a RV as their "headquarters", which they stationed at a service area and Durham service rest stops while using a separate vehicle to search for targets and execute thefts.

On March 31 they took over £1m of goods such as designer clothing, handbags, jewelry and a honor from a house on a street in Jesmond, while the owners were on holiday.

The next evening, the gang broke into a home on a private road in Whitburn, and took designer handbags, valuables and shoes worth over £100,000.

After scouting out the football club's training ground for two days, they then acted at the residence of Sweden player Alexander Isak in Darras Hall, Ponteland on April 4, stealing £10,000 in cash, £68,000 valued of jewellery and the striker's one hundred twenty thousand pound luxury car.

The group, who were portrayed by prosecutors as professional touring thieves, wore hand coverings and masks, turned their phones on silent as they neared their objectives and strapped a license plate, which had been taken from a garage in a town, on to their car with elastic bands.

They were apprehended in the Birmingham on 13 April.

Court Proceedings and Rulings

Valentino Nikolov had pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to burglary but was found guilty by the court, while his family members had all entered admissions to the same charge.

At the criminal gains session, prosecutor the prosecution said every one of the burglars had benefited from their offenses to the value of £1,266,285.93, which was determined by what the victims said they had had stolen.

But Charlie was the only one deemed to have any funds that could be "realised", specifically £1,135.50 which had previously been confiscated by police, the judge heard, with two weeks to be spent in jail if he failed to pay.

The remaining members had no money or assets so were directed to pay a nominal fee of £1 per person, with one week 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 Italy in a sports car or possessing a property", the prosecution could seek further action to "recover the sum due".