🔗 Share this article

Members of an Italian clan of burglars who took more than £1.2m worth of items, among them from former NUFC forward Isak, have been ordered to return just £1 per person.

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

The group of four were imprisoned for between six and 10 years in May 2025.

At a proceeds of crime proceeding at the court, Jela and the Nikolov brothers were ordered to repay £1 per person while Charlie Jovanovic must pay £1,135.

Details of the Burglaries

The court was told the group arrived by boat in the UK on 27 March 2024 and employed a campervan as their "headquarters", which they stationed at a service area and Durham service service stations while using another car to search for properties and execute thefts.

On March 31 they stole more than one million pounds of items such as designer clothing, handbags, jewelry and a honor from a house on a street in Jesmond, while the owners were on holiday.

The following night, the gang broke into a home on a gated cul-de-sac in Whitburn, South Tyneside, and took designer handbags, jewellery and footwear worth over £100,000.

Following surveillance of the football club's training ground for two days, they then struck at the home of Sweden player Alexander Isak in Darras Hall, Ponteland on 4 April, taking £10,000 in money, £68,000 worth of jewellery and the player's £120,000 luxury car.

The gang, who were described by the prosecution as experienced itinerant thieves, wore gloves and face coverings, turned their phones off as they neared their targets and attached a license plate, which had been stolen from a garage in a town, on to their car with elastic bands.

They were apprehended in the Birmingham area on April 13.

Court Proceedings and Rulings

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

At the criminal gains hearing, prosecutor the prosecution said each of the burglars had benefited from their crimes 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 sole individual found to have any money that could be "realised", specifically £1,135.50 which had already been seized by authorities, the court heard, with two weeks to be served in jail if he defaulted.

The other three had no assets or assets so were ordered to pay a nominal fee of £1 per person, with seven days in incarceration the result if the sum was not paid.

The judge Spragg said if they were found with property in the coming years, "such as operating in Italy in a sports car or possessing a property", prosecutors could initiate new proceedings to "satisfy the amount outstanding".