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Members of an Italy-based family of thieves who took over £1.2m worth of items, including from ex- Newcastle United forward Isak, have been ordered to return just £1 per person.

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

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

At a criminal assets hearing at the court, Jela and the Nikolov brothers were ordered to repay £1 per person while Charlie Jovanovic must hand over £1,135.

Details of the Burglaries

The judge was told the gang arrived by boat in the United Kingdom on March 27, 2024 and employed a campervan as their "base of operations", which they parked at Scotch Corner and Durham service rest stops while utilizing a separate vehicle to scout out targets and execute thefts.

On 31 March they stole over one million pounds of items such as designer clothing, purses, jewellery 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 private road in Whitburn, South Tyneside, and took luxury bags, valuables and footwear valued at over £100,000.

After scouting out the football club's facility for two days, they then struck at the home of Swedish striker Alexander Isak in Darras Hall on 4 April, stealing £10,000 in money, sixty-eight thousand pounds valued of jewelry and the player's £120,000 luxury car.

The gang, who were portrayed by the prosecution as professional itinerant thieves, wore hand coverings and masks, switched their phones on silent as they approached their objectives and strapped a license plate, which had been stolen from a garage in a town, on to their car with rubber straps.

They were arrested in the Birmingham area on April 13.

Court Proceedings and Rulings

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

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

But Charlie was the sole individual found to have any funds that could be "recovered", namely £1,135.50 which had already been seized by authorities, the court heard, with two weeks to be spent in jail if he failed to pay.

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

The judge Spragg said if they were discovered with assets in the coming years, "for example driving around Italy in a fast car or owning a home", prosecutors could seek further action to "recover the sum due".