Members of an Italy-based family of thieves who took more than £1.2m worth of goods, including from former Newcastle United striker Isak, have been ordered to return only £1 per person.
Siblings Valentino Nikolov and Giacomo, their sister Jela and her son Charlie travelled to the north-east of the UK to burgle multiple homes in spring 2024.
The group of four were imprisoned for from six and 10 years in 2025.
At a criminal assets proceeding at Newcastle Crown Court, Jela and the brothers Nikolov were ordered to pay back £1 per person while Charlie Jovanovic must pay over a thousand pounds.
Particulars of the Burglaries
The judge was told the group arrived by boat in the UK on 27 March 2024 and employed a campervan as their "base of operations", which they stationed at a service area and Durham service rest stops while utilizing a separate vehicle to search for properties and carry out thefts.
On 31 March they took more than one million pounds of items such as high-end fashion, purses, jewellery and a honor from a residence on a street in Jesmond, Newcastle, while the owners were away.
The next evening, the gang broke into a home on a gated cul-de-sac in Whitburn, and took designer handbags, valuables and shoes valued at more than one hundred thousand pounds.
After scouting out the football club's training ground for 48 hours, they then struck at the home of Swedish player Alexander Isak in Darras Hall on 4 April, taking £10,000 in money, 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 itinerant thieves, wore gloves and face coverings, turned their phones off as they neared their targets and strapped a number plate, which had been stolen from a garage in a town, on to their vehicle with rubber straps.
They were apprehended in the Birmingham area on April 13.
Legal Hearings and Sentencing
Valentino Nikolov had denied conspiracy to burglary but was convicted by jurors, while his family members had all submitted guilty pleas to the identical accusation.
At the proceeds of crime session, prosecutor Daniel Cordey 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 Jovanovic was the sole individual deemed to have any money that could be "recovered", specifically £1,135.50 which had already been seized by police, the court was informed, with 14 days to be spent in prison if he failed to pay.
The remaining members had no assets or assets so were directed to pay a nominal fee of £1 per person, with one week in prison the result if the money was not paid.
The judge Spragg said if they were discovered with assets in the coming years, "for example operating in Italy in a fast car or owning a property", prosecutors could seek new proceedings to "satisfy the sum due".
