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Individuals of an Italy-based family of burglars who took more than £1.2m valued of items, among them from ex- Newcastle United forward Alexander Isak, have been ordered to return just £1 per person.

Siblings Valentino Nikolov and Giacomo, their sister Jela Jovanovic and her child Charlie Jovanovic journeyed to the north-east of England to raid multiple homes in April 2024.

The group of four were jailed for between a decade or less in 2025.

At a criminal assets hearing at Newcastle Crown Court, Jela and the brothers Nikolov were instructed to repay £1 each while Charlie must pay over a thousand pounds.

Particulars of the Break-ins

The judge was told the group arrived by boat in the United Kingdom on March 27, 2024 and employed a campervan as their "headquarters", which they parked at Scotch Corner and Durham service stations while using a separate vehicle to search for targets and carry out thefts.

On March 31 they stole more than one million pounds of items including designer clothing, handbags, jewelry and a CBE medal from a house on Clayton Road in Jesmond, while the owners were on holiday.

The next evening, the gang broke into a house on a gated cul-de-sac in Whitburn, South Tyneside, and took designer handbags, jewellery and shoes worth over £100,000.

After scouting out Newcastle United's training ground for 48 hours, they then struck at the home of Sweden player Alexander Isak in Darras Hall on April 4, stealing ten thousand pounds in money, £68,000 worth of jewellery and the player's one hundred twenty thousand pound luxury car.

The group, who were described by prosecutors as professional touring burglars, used gloves and masks, turned their phones off as they approached their objectives and strapped a license plate, which had been stolen from a garage 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 Nikolov had denied conspiracy to burglary but was found guilty by the court, while his three relations had all submitted admissions to the identical accusation.

At the criminal gains session, lawyer Daniel Cordey said each of the defendants had profited from their offenses to the value of £1,266,285.93, which was based on what the victims said they had lost.

But Charlie Jovanovic was the only one deemed to have any money that could be "recovered", specifically over a thousand pounds which had previously been confiscated by police, the court was informed, with two weeks to be spent in prison if he defaulted.

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

The judge Robert Spragg said if they were discovered with property in the coming years, "such as driving around in Italy in a fast car or owning a property", the prosecution could initiate further action to "recover the sum due".