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Members of an Italian clan of thieves who stole more than £1.2m valued of goods, among them from ex- NUFC forward Alexander Isak, have been mandated to pay back just £1 per person.

Brothers Valentino Nikolov and Giacomo Nikolov, their sister Jela Jovanovic and her son Charlie Jovanovic travelled to the northeastern of England to raid three houses in spring 2024.

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

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

Details of the Burglaries

The court previously heard the group arrived by boat in the United Kingdom on March 27, 2024 and employed a RV as their "headquarters", which they stationed at Scotch Corner and Durham service rest stops while utilizing another car to search for properties and execute burglaries.

On 31 March they took more than one million pounds of goods such as designer clothing, purses, 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 gated cul-de-sac in Whitburn, and stole designer handbags, jewellery and shoes worth over £100,000.

Following surveillance of the football club's facility for two days, they then struck at the residence of Sweden player Alexander Isak in Darras Hall on April 4, taking ten thousand pounds in cash, sixty-eight thousand pounds valued of jewelry and the player's one hundred twenty thousand pound luxury car.

The gang, who were portrayed by prosecutors as experienced itinerant thieves, used gloves and face coverings, turned their phones off 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.

Legal Hearings and Rulings

Valentino Nikolov had denied the burglary plot but was convicted by the court, while his three relations had all submitted admissions to the same charge.

At the criminal gains session, lawyer Daniel Cordey said each of the defendants had benefited from their crimes to the value of £1,266,285.93, which was determined by what the victims said they had had stolen.

But Charlie Jovanovic was the only one deemed to have any funds that could be "realised", namely over a thousand pounds which had previously been confiscated by authorities, the court was informed, with 14 days to be spent in jail if he failed to pay.

The other three had no assets or property so were ordered to pay a nominal fee of £1 each, with seven days in prison the consequence if the sum was not paid.

Judge Spragg said if they were found with property in the coming years, "such as operating in Italy in a fast car or owning a property", the prosecution could initiate new proceedings to "recover the amount outstanding".