🔗 Share this article

Members of an Italy-based clan of thieves who took more than £1.2m worth of items, including from former Newcastle United striker Isak, have been mandated to pay back just £1 per person.

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

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

At a criminal assets proceeding at the court, Jela Jovanovic and the Nikolov brothers were ordered to pay back £1 per person while Charlie Jovanovic must pay £1,135.

Details of the Break-ins

The judge previously heard the gang arrived by ferry 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 service stations while using another car to scout out properties and execute burglaries.

On 31 March they took over £1m of items such as high-end fashion, handbags, jewelry and a CBE medal from a residence on a street in Jesmond, while the residents were away.

The next evening, the gang broke into a house on a gated cul-de-sac in Whitburn, and took luxury bags, jewellery and shoes worth more than one hundred thousand pounds.

Following surveillance of the football club's facility for two days, they then acted at the home of Sweden striker Alexander Isak in Darras Hall on April 4, stealing £10,000 in cash, sixty-eight thousand pounds worth of jewelry and the player's one hundred twenty thousand pound Audi RS6.

The group, who were portrayed by the prosecution as professional itinerant thieves, used hand coverings and masks, switched their phones 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 car with elastic bands.

They were apprehended in the Birmingham on 13 April.

Court Hearings and Rulings

Valentino Nikolov had denied the burglary plot but was convicted by the court, while his family members had all submitted guilty pleas to the same charge.

At the proceeds of crime session, lawyer Daniel Cordey said every one of the burglars had profited from their offenses to the value of £1,266,285.93, which was determined by what the victims said they had lost.

But Charlie Jovanovic was the only one found to have any money that could be "recovered", namely over a thousand pounds which had already been seized by authorities, the judge was informed, with 14 days to be spent in jail if he defaulted.

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

Judge Robert Spragg said if they were found with assets in the coming years, "for example operating in Italy in a fast car or possessing a home", prosecutors could initiate further action to "satisfy the amount outstanding".