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

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

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

At a criminal assets hearing at Newcastle Crown Court, Jela Jovanovic and the Nikolov brothers were ordered to repay £1 each while Charlie must pay £1,135.

Details of the Break-ins

The court was told the group arrived by ferry in the UK on March 27, 2024 and employed a RV as their "base of operations", which they stationed at a service area and Durham service service stations while using a separate vehicle to search for targets and execute burglaries.

On March 31 they stole more than one million pounds of items such as high-end fashion, handbags, jewelry and a CBE medal from a house on Clayton Road in Jesmond, while the owners were away.

The following night, the crew entered a home on a private road in Whitburn, South Tyneside, and took designer handbags, jewellery and shoes valued at more than one hundred thousand pounds.

Following surveillance of Newcastle United's facility for 48 hours, they then struck at the home of Sweden player Alexander Isak in Darras Hall on 4 April, taking £10,000 in money, £68,000 worth of jewelry and the player's £120,000 luxury car.

The gang, who were described by the prosecution as experienced itinerant burglars, used hand coverings and face coverings, switched their phones off as they neared their objectives and strapped a number plate, which had been taken 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.

Legal Hearings and Rulings

Valentino had denied the burglary plot but was found guilty by jurors, while his three relations had all submitted admissions to the identical accusation.

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

But Charlie Jovanovic was the sole individual found to have any money that could be "realised", specifically over a thousand pounds which had already been seized by police, the judge was informed, with 14 days to be served in jail if he failed to pay.

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

Judge Robert Spragg said if they were discovered with assets in the future, "for example driving around in Italy in a fast car or possessing a property", prosecutors could initiate new proceedings to "recover the amount outstanding".