🔗 Share this article

Members of an Italian clan of burglars who took over £1.2m valued of items, among them from former Newcastle United forward Isak, have been mandated to return just £1 each.

Siblings Valentino Nikolov and Giacomo Nikolov, their female sibling Jela Jovanovic and her son Charlie Jovanovic travelled to the north-east of England to raid three houses in April 2024.

The foursome were jailed for between six and 10 years in 2025.

At a criminal assets proceeding at the court, Jela Jovanovic and the brothers Nikolov were ordered to pay back £1 each while Charlie must pay over a thousand pounds.

Particulars of the Break-ins

The court was told the group came by boat in the United Kingdom on March 27, 2024 and used a RV as their "base of operations", which they stationed at a service area and Durham service stations while utilizing another car to search for properties and execute burglaries.

On 31 March they stole over £1m of goods such as high-end fashion, purses, jewellery and a honor from a house on a street in Jesmond, while the residents were on holiday.

The following night, the gang entered a house on a private road in Whitburn, South Tyneside, and took luxury bags, jewellery and footwear valued at more than £100,000.

Following surveillance of the football club's facility for 48 hours, they then acted at the residence of Sweden player Alexander Isak in Darras Hall on 4 April, taking ten thousand pounds in money, £68,000 valued of jewellery and the striker's £120,000 luxury car.

The group, who were portrayed by the prosecution as experienced itinerant burglars, wore gloves and face coverings, switched their phones on silent as they neared their objectives and attached a license plate, which had been taken from a garage in a town, on to their vehicle with elastic bands.

They were arrested in the Birmingham on 13 April.

Court Proceedings and Sentencing

Valentino had denied conspiracy to burglary but was found guilty by jurors, while his family members had all submitted admissions to the same charge.

At the criminal gains session, prosecutor the prosecution said each of the burglars had profited from their crimes to the value of £1,266,285.93, which was determined by what the victims said they had had stolen.

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

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

Judge Robert Spragg said if they were discovered with assets in the future, "such as operating in Italy in a sports car or owning a property", prosecutors could initiate further action to "recover the sum due".