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Members of an Italian clan of thieves who took over £1.2m worth of items, including from former NUFC forward Isak, have been mandated to return only £1 each.

Brothers Valentino Nikolov and Giacomo Nikolov, their sister Jela and her son Charlie travelled to the northeastern of the UK to burgle three houses in spring 2024.

The foursome were imprisoned for from a decade or less in May 2025.

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

Details of the Break-ins

The court was told the gang came by boat in the United Kingdom on 27 March 2024 and used a campervan as their "headquarters", which they parked at a service area and Durham service rest stops while utilizing a separate vehicle to scout out targets and carry out thefts.

On March 31 they stole more than one million pounds of items such as designer clothing, handbags, jewellery and a honor from a residence on Clayton Road in Jesmond, while the residents were on holiday.

The next evening, the gang entered a house on a gated cul-de-sac in Whitburn, and stole designer handbags, valuables and shoes valued at over one hundred thousand pounds.

After scouting out the football club's training ground for two days, they then acted at the home of Sweden striker Mr Isak in Darras Hall on 4 April, taking £10,000 in cash, sixty-eight thousand pounds valued of jewelry and the striker's one hundred twenty thousand pound luxury car.

The gang, who were portrayed by the prosecution as professional touring burglars, used hand coverings and masks, turned their mobile devices off as they neared their targets and strapped a license plate, which had been taken from a auto shop in a town, on to their car with rubber straps.

They were arrested in the Birmingham on 13 April.

Legal Hearings and Rulings

Valentino Nikolov had denied conspiracy to burglary but was convicted by the court, while his family members had all submitted admissions to the identical accusation.

At the criminal gains hearing, lawyer the prosecution said every one of the defendants had profited from their crimes 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 "realised", specifically £1,135.50 which had previously been confiscated by police, the judge was informed, with two weeks to be spent in prison if he failed to pay.

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

The judge Spragg said if they were discovered with assets in the coming years, "such as operating in Italy in a fast car or owning a property", the prosecution could initiate new proceedings to "recover the sum outstanding".