🔗 Share this article

Members of an Italy-based family of burglars who stole more than £1.2 million valued of goods, among them from ex- NUFC forward Isak, have been ordered to pay back just £1 per person.

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

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

At a proceeds of crime proceeding at Newcastle Crown Court, Jela Jovanovic and the Nikolov brothers were ordered to repay £1 per person while Charlie Jovanovic must hand over over a thousand pounds.

Details of the Break-ins

The judge was told the group arrived by ferry in the UK on March 27, 2024 and used a campervan as their "base of operations", which they parked at a service area and Durham service stations while utilizing a separate vehicle to scout out properties and carry out thefts.

On 31 March they took more than one million pounds of items such as high-end fashion, handbags, jewellery and a honor from a residence on a street in Jesmond, Newcastle, while the owners were away.

The next evening, the crew entered a house on a private road in Whitburn, South Tyneside, and took luxury bags, jewellery and shoes worth more than one hundred thousand pounds.

Following surveillance of the football club's training ground for 48 hours, they then acted at the residence of Swedish striker Alexander Isak in Darras Hall, Ponteland on April 4, taking ten thousand pounds in cash, sixty-eight thousand pounds worth of jewellery and the player's one hundred twenty thousand pound Audi RS6.

The gang, who were portrayed by the prosecution as experienced touring burglars, used hand coverings and face coverings, turned their mobile devices off as they approached their targets and attached a license plate, which had been stolen from a auto shop in a town, on to their car with elastic bands.

They were arrested in the Birmingham on 13 April.

Legal Proceedings and Sentencing

Valentino Nikolov had pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to burglary but was convicted by jurors, while his three relations had all submitted guilty pleas to the identical accusation.

At the proceeds of crime hearing, lawyer the prosecution said every one of the burglars had profited from their crimes to the amount of over £1.2 million, which was based on what the victims said they had had stolen.

But Charlie Jovanovic was the sole individual deemed to have any money that could be "recovered", specifically over a thousand pounds which had already been seized by police, the judge heard, with two weeks to be spent in prison if he defaulted.

The remaining members had no assets or assets so were directed to pay a nominal fee of £1 each, with one week in incarceration the consequence if the sum was not submitted.

The judge Robert Spragg said if they were found with assets in the coming years, "for example driving around Italy in a fast car or owning a home", the prosecution could seek further action to "satisfy the sum outstanding".