Isak Robbers Instructed to Repay Only £1 Per Person from £1.2m Thefts
Individuals of an Italy-based family of burglars who took over £1.2 million worth of goods, including from former Newcastle United forward Alexander Isak, have been ordered to return just £1 per person.
Brothers Valentino and Giacomo, their female sibling Jela and her son Charlie journeyed to the north-east of the UK to burgle multiple homes in April 2024.
The group of four were jailed for between six and 10 years in 2025.
At a criminal assets hearing at Newcastle Crown Court, Jela Jovanovic and the brothers Nikolov were instructed to pay back £1 per person while Charlie Jovanovic must pay £1,135.
Particulars of the Break-ins
The court was told the group arrived by boat in the United Kingdom on March 27, 2024 and used a campervan as their "base of operations", which they parked at Scotch Corner and Durham service service stations while utilizing a separate vehicle to search for properties and carry out burglaries.
On March 31 they took more than £1m of items such as designer clothing, handbags, jewellery and a CBE medal from a house on a street in Jesmond, while the residents were on holiday.
The following night, the gang broke into a house on a gated cul-de-sac in Whitburn, and took luxury bags, jewellery and footwear worth more than one hundred thousand pounds.
Following surveillance of the football club's facility for 48 hours, they then acted at the residence of Swedish player Mr Isak in Darras Hall on 4 April, taking £10,000 in money, sixty-eight thousand pounds worth of jewelry and the player's one hundred twenty thousand pound Audi RS6.
The group, who were described by prosecutors as professional itinerant burglars, wore hand coverings and face coverings, turned their phones on silent as they neared their objectives and strapped a number plate, which had been taken from a garage in a town, on to their car with elastic bands.
They were apprehended in the Birmingham area on April 13.
Legal Proceedings and Sentencing
Valentino had denied the burglary plot but was found guilty by the court, while his three relations had all submitted guilty pleas to the identical accusation.
At the criminal gains hearing, lawyer the prosecution said every one of the burglars had profited from their offenses to the value of £1,266,285.93, which was determined by what the affected parties said they had lost.
But Charlie was the sole individual deemed to have any funds that could be "recovered", namely £1,135.50 which had previously been confiscated by authorities, the judge heard, with 14 days to be spent in prison if he defaulted.
The remaining members had no assets or assets so were ordered to pay a nominal fee of £1 each, with one week in incarceration the result if the money was not submitted.
The judge Spragg said if they were found with property in the coming years, "such as driving around in Italy in a sports car or possessing a home", prosecutors could initiate new proceedings to "recover the sum outstanding".