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Members of an Italy-based family of burglars who took more than £1.2 million valued of items, including from former NUFC forward Alexander Isak, have been ordered to pay back only £1 per person.

Siblings Valentino Nikolov and Giacomo Nikolov, their sister Jela and her son Charlie journeyed to the northeastern of the UK to burgle multiple homes in April 2024.

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

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

Particulars of the Burglaries

The court previously heard the group came by ferry in the United Kingdom on 27 March 2024 and used a RV as their "headquarters", which they stationed at Scotch Corner and Durham service rest stops while using another car to search for targets and carry out burglaries.

On 31 March they took more than one million pounds of items including high-end fashion, handbags, jewellery and a CBE medal from a house on Clayton Road in Jesmond, Newcastle, while the residents were away.

The following night, the crew broke into a house on a gated cul-de-sac in Whitburn, and stole designer handbags, jewellery and shoes worth more than one hundred thousand pounds.

After scouting out the football club's training ground for two days, they then acted at the residence of Sweden striker Mr Isak in Darras Hall on 4 April, taking ten thousand pounds in money, sixty-eight thousand pounds valued of jewelry and the striker's one hundred twenty thousand pound luxury car.

The gang, who were portrayed by the prosecution as experienced touring thieves, used hand coverings and face coverings, switched their mobile devices off as they neared their objectives and attached a license plate, which had been stolen from a auto shop in Chester-le-Street, on to their vehicle with elastic bands.

They were apprehended in the Birmingham on 13 April.

Court Proceedings and Sentencing

Valentino had pleaded not guilty to the burglary plot but was convicted by the court, while his three relations had all submitted guilty pleas to the same charge.

At the proceeds of crime session, prosecutor Daniel Cordey said each of the defendants had profited from their offenses to the amount of £1,266,285.93, which was determined by what the affected parties said they had lost.

But Charlie Jovanovic was the sole individual deemed to have any money that could be "recovered", namely over a thousand pounds which had previously been confiscated by authorities, the judge heard, with two weeks to be spent in jail if he failed to pay.

The other three had no money or property so were directed to pay a token amount of £1 per person, with one week in incarceration the result if the sum was not submitted.

The judge Robert Spragg said if they were discovered with assets in the future, "such as operating Italy in a fast car or owning a home", prosecutors could initiate new proceedings to "recover the amount due".