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Individuals of an Italian family of thieves who stole more than £1.2 million valued of goods, among them from ex- Newcastle United forward Isak, have been ordered to pay back only £1 each.

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

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

At a criminal assets proceeding at Newcastle Crown Court, Jela and the Nikolov brothers were instructed to repay £1 per person while Charlie Jovanovic must pay £1,135.

Details of the Burglaries

The court was told the gang arrived by ferry in the United Kingdom on 27 March 2024 and used a RV as their "base of operations", which they stationed at Scotch Corner and Durham service service stations while using a separate vehicle to search for targets and carry out burglaries.

On 31 March they stole over one million pounds of goods such as designer clothing, handbags, jewellery and a honor from a house on a street in Jesmond, while the owners were away.

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

Following surveillance of the football club's training ground for 48 hours, they then acted at the home of Sweden player Mr Isak in Darras Hall on April 4, taking ten thousand pounds in cash, sixty-eight thousand pounds worth of jewellery and the player's £120,000 luxury car.

The gang, who were described by the prosecution as experienced touring thieves, wore gloves and masks, turned their mobile devices on silent as they neared their objectives and strapped a license plate, which had been taken from a auto shop in a town, on to their car with elastic bands.

They were arrested in the Birmingham on 13 April.

Court Hearings and Rulings

Valentino had denied the burglary plot but was found guilty by the court, while his family members had all entered admissions to the same charge.

At the proceeds of crime session, lawyer Daniel Cordey said each of the defendants had benefited from their offenses to the value of over £1.2 million, which was determined by what the affected parties said they had lost.

But Charlie Jovanovic was the only one found to have any funds that could be "realised", namely £1,135.50 which had previously been confiscated by authorities, the judge heard, with two weeks to be served in prison if he defaulted.

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

Judge Spragg said if they were found with property in the coming years, "such as operating Italy in a sports car or owning a property", the prosecution could seek further action to "recover the amount due".