Isak Burglars Instructed to Pay Just £1 Per Person from £1.2m Thefts
Members of an Italian family of thieves who took over £1.2m valued of goods, among them from ex- NUFC forward Isak, have been ordered to return only £1 per person.
Siblings Valentino and Giacomo, their female sibling Jela Jovanovic and her child Charlie travelled to the northeastern of England to raid three houses in April 2024.
The foursome were jailed for between six and 10 years in 2025.
At a proceeds of crime hearing at the court, Jela Jovanovic and the brothers Nikolov were instructed to pay back £1 each while Charlie Jovanovic must hand over £1,135.
Particulars of the Burglaries
The court previously heard the group arrived by ferry in the UK on 27 March 2024 and used a campervan as their "headquarters", which they parked at a service area and Durham service service stations while using a separate vehicle to scout out properties and execute burglaries.
On March 31 they stole over £1m of items such as high-end fashion, purses, jewellery and a CBE medal from a residence on a street in Jesmond, while the residents were on holiday.
The following night, the crew broke into a home on a private road in Whitburn, South Tyneside, and took designer handbags, jewellery and footwear valued at over one hundred thousand pounds.
Following surveillance of Newcastle United's training ground for 48 hours, they then acted at the residence of Swedish striker Alexander Isak in Darras Hall, Ponteland on 4 April, taking ten thousand pounds in cash, sixty-eight thousand pounds valued of jewellery and the striker's one hundred twenty thousand pound Audi RS6.
The gang, who were portrayed by the prosecution as professional itinerant burglars, used gloves and masks, switched their mobile devices on silent as they neared their targets and attached a number plate, which had been stolen from a auto shop in a town, on to their vehicle with elastic bands.
They were arrested in the Birmingham on April 13.
Legal Hearings and Sentencing
Valentino Nikolov had denied the burglary plot but was found guilty by jurors, while his three relations had all entered guilty pleas to the identical accusation.
At the criminal gains hearing, lawyer Daniel Cordey said each of the burglars had benefited from their offenses to the amount of £1,266,285.93, which was based on what the affected parties said they had lost.
But Charlie Jovanovic was the only one found to have any money that could be "realised", specifically over a thousand pounds which had previously been confiscated by police, the judge heard, with two weeks to be spent in jail if he failed to pay.
The remaining members had no money or property so were directed to pay a nominal fee of £1 each, with seven days in prison the result if the sum was not paid.
The judge Robert Spragg said if they were discovered with property in the coming years, "for example driving around in Italy in a sports car or owning a property", the prosecution could initiate further action to "recover the sum outstanding".