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Members of an Italian clan of burglars who took more than £1.2m valued of items, including from former NUFC forward Alexander Isak, have been ordered to pay back only £1 per person.

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

The foursome were jailed for between six and 10 years in 2025.

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

Particulars of the Burglaries

The judge previously heard the group came by boat in the United Kingdom on 27 March 2024 and used a RV as their "headquarters", which they stationed at a service area and Durham service stations while utilizing another car to search for properties and carry out burglaries.

On 31 March they took more than £1m of items including designer clothing, purses, jewelry and a CBE medal from a house on a street in Jesmond, Newcastle, while the owners were away.

The next evening, the crew entered a house on a gated cul-de-sac in Whitburn, and stole designer handbags, jewellery and footwear worth more than one hundred thousand pounds.

Following surveillance of Newcastle United's training ground for 48 hours, they then acted at the home of Sweden striker Mr Isak in Darras Hall, Ponteland on April 4, stealing ten thousand pounds in money, £68,000 worth of jewelry and the striker's one hundred twenty thousand pound Audi RS6.

The gang, who were described by prosecutors as experienced itinerant burglars, used gloves and face coverings, switched their phones off as they approached their objectives and strapped a number plate, which had been stolen from a garage in Chester-le-Street, on to their car with elastic bands.

They were apprehended in the Birmingham area on April 13.

Court Hearings and Sentencing

Valentino Nikolov had pleaded not guilty to the burglary plot but was convicted by jurors, while his family members had all entered admissions to the identical accusation.

At the criminal gains hearing, prosecutor Daniel Cordey said each of the defendants had benefited from their crimes to the amount of £1,266,285.93, which was based on what the victims said they had lost.

But Charlie was the only one deemed to have any money that could be "recovered", namely over a thousand pounds which had previously been confiscated by police, the judge was informed, with two weeks to be served in prison if he failed to pay.

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

Judge Robert Spragg said if they were found with property in the future, "for example driving around in Italy in a sports car or owning a home", the prosecution could seek new proceedings to "recover the sum outstanding".