Alexander Isak Burglars Ordered to Pay Only £1 Per Person from £1.2m Thefts

Individuals of an Italian clan of thieves who stole over £1.2m worth of goods, including from former NUFC forward Alexander Isak, have been ordered to pay back only £1 per person.

Siblings Valentino and Giacomo Nikolov, their female sibling Jela Jovanovic and her child Charlie journeyed to the north-east of England to raid multiple homes in April 2024.

The group of four were jailed for from a decade or less in May 2025.

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

Particulars of the Break-ins

The judge previously heard the gang came by boat in the UK on March 27, 2024 and employed a campervan as their "base of operations", which they parked at Scotch Corner and Durham rest stops while using a separate vehicle to scout out properties and execute thefts.

On 31 March they stole over one million pounds of items including designer clothing, purses, jewelry and a honor from a house on Clayton Road in Jesmond, while the residents were on holiday.

The next evening, the gang entered a home on a gated cul-de-sac in Whitburn, South Tyneside, and stole designer handbags, jewellery and shoes valued at more than £100,000.

Following surveillance of the football club's training ground for two days, they then acted at the home of Sweden player Mr Isak in Darras Hall on April 4, stealing ten thousand pounds in money, sixty-eight thousand pounds worth of jewellery and the player's £120,000 luxury car.

The group, who were portrayed by prosecutors as experienced itinerant thieves, used hand coverings and masks, switched their phones off as they approached their targets and strapped a license 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 area on 13 April.

Legal Proceedings and Sentencing

Valentino Nikolov had denied the burglary plot but was convicted by the court, while his three relations had all submitted admissions to the identical accusation.

At the criminal gains hearing, prosecutor the prosecution said every one of the defendants had profited from their offenses to the amount of £1,266,285.93, which was determined by what the affected parties said they had lost.

But Charlie Jovanovic was the only one found to have any funds that could be "realised", specifically over a thousand pounds which had previously been confiscated by police, the court was informed, with two weeks to be spent in prison if he defaulted.

The remaining members had no money or assets so were ordered to make a token amount of £1 each, with one week in incarceration the consequence if the money was not submitted.

Judge Robert Spragg said if they were found with assets in the future, "for example driving around in Italy in a sports car or possessing a property", prosecutors could seek new proceedings to "satisfy the amount outstanding".