🔗 Share this article

Members of an Italian family of thieves who stole more than £1.2m worth of goods, including from former NUFC forward Isak, have been ordered to return just £1 per person.

Siblings Valentino and Giacomo, their female sibling Jela and her child Charlie journeyed to the northeastern of the UK to raid three houses in April 2024.

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

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

Details of the Break-ins

The judge previously heard the group arrived by ferry in the United Kingdom on 27 March 2024 and employed a campervan as their "headquarters", which they stationed at Scotch Corner and Durham service service stations while using a separate vehicle to search for properties and execute thefts.

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

The next evening, the crew broke into a home on a private road in Whitburn, and took designer handbags, jewellery and shoes worth more than £100,000.

Following surveillance of the football club's training ground for two days, they then struck at the residence of Sweden striker Alexander Isak in Darras Hall, Ponteland on 4 April, stealing ten thousand pounds in money, £68,000 valued of jewelry and the striker's one hundred twenty thousand pound Audi RS6.

The group, who were portrayed by the prosecution as experienced touring burglars, wore hand coverings and masks, switched their phones on silent as they neared their targets and strapped a number plate, which had been taken from a auto shop in a town, on to their car with elastic bands.

They were apprehended in the Birmingham on 13 April.

Court Proceedings and Rulings

Valentino Nikolov had pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to burglary but was found guilty by jurors, while his family members had all submitted admissions to the identical accusation.

At the proceeds of crime hearing, prosecutor the prosecution said each of the defendants had benefited from their offenses to the value of £1,266,285.93, which was based on what the affected parties said they had had stolen.

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 heard, with 14 days to be served in jail if he failed to pay.

The remaining members had no assets or property so were ordered to make a nominal fee of £1 each, with seven days in prison the consequence if the sum was not paid.

The judge Spragg said if they were discovered with property in the coming years, "for example driving around in Italy in a fast car or owning a home", prosecutors could seek new proceedings to "recover the sum due".