Family of ‘travelling burglars’ who targeted Premier League star’s home jailed

A family of “professional travelling burglars” who targeted the home of Premier League star Alexander Isak have been jailed.

Siblings Valentino Nikolov, 32, Giacomo Nikolov, 28, and Jela Jovanovic, 43, as well as Jovanovic’s son Charlie Jovanovic, 23, travelled from Italy to the UK last year to “commit carefully planned burglaries targeting high value properties”, a court heard.

Prosecutors said the gang arrived on a ferry to Dover and drove across the country, sleeping in a motorhome during their week-long crime spree.

The three men would carry out the burglaries, wearing gloves and masks to cover their tracks, while Jela Jovanovic waited outside in a getaway car.

Newcastle Crown Court heard they stole Mr Isak’s car, jewellery worth £68,000 and up to £10,000 in cash when they burgled his home in Darras Hall, Northumberland, last April.

Valentino Nikolov was jailed for 10 years on Tuesday, Giacomo Nikolov for eight years, Jela Jovanovic for seven years and two months, and Charlie Jovanovic for six years and nine months.

Judge Robert Spragg said the sentences mean the defendants meet the Home Office criteria for automatic deportation.

Mr Isak’s victim impact statement said he had been left with “a sense of unease” by the “attack” on his home, while a player liaison manager at Newcastle United said the club had been forced to invest in monitored alarm systems and security patrols following a spate of burglaries targeted at players.

The court heard Newcastle United and Sweden forward Mr Isak had left his house between 4pm and 10pm on April 4, and discovered the break-in when he returned and saw his bins had been moved.

Prosecutor Dan Cordey said mobile phone evidence showed the gang had been carrying out “surveillance” at the Newcastle United training ground in the two days leading up to the break-in “to establish movements to and from” the facility.

The court heard the gang broke into Mr Isak’s home through a glass door and carried out an “untidy search” of the property, taking cash, jewellery and an Audi RS6 estate car, which a member of the public later found abandoned.

Mr Isak told detectives he kept cash in bags upstairs, made up of notes of varying denominations as well as coins, and the amount taken was between £5,000 and £10,000.

He said bespoke men’s jewellery from Frost of London worth about £68,000 – made up of bracelets, necklaces and rings – was taken.

Mr Cordey said the gang also took a safe left by the home’s previous occupant, although it did not contain anything valuable.

CCTV images of the break-in, recorded on a “doggy cam”, showed three masked men climb on to a first floor balcony and disappear from view, before a large black item was thrown from the balcony.

In a victim impact statement read in court, Mr Isak said he had lived in the North East of England since August 2022 and had not experienced any problems in the first period of living there.

He said: “Things changed, however, on April 4 2024 when, following an evening at a colleague’s house, I returned to my home to find I had been burgled and my car stolen from my drive.

“It appeared a significant level of force had been used to attack the property, a large safe had been thrown over an upstairs balcony… My car had been used as a battering ram to force through the gates of my house.

“None of the property stolen from my home was ever recovered.

“The attack on my home has left me with a sense of unease and I fear it could reoccur.”

A statement from Glenn Patterson, a player liaison officer at Newcastle United, said a spate of burglaries and attempted burglaries targeted at players had impacted the players themselves and forced the club to conduct an extensive review of player safety.

He said the club had invested in monitored alarm systems and recruited private security patrols “to allay players’ fears for their families and homes”.

The court heard before burgling Mr Isak’s home, the “forensically aware” thieves had already stolen a CBE medal and jewellery and clothes worth more than £1 million from Tyneside businesswoman Helen McCardle, and designer goods worth £100,000 from a woman living in a gated cul-de-sac in South Tyneside in the previous days.

Mrs McCardle told police she and her husband were on holiday in Spain when their four-storey home in Jesmond, Newcastle, was burgled.

The thieves got in through a patio door into her bedroom and raided her walk-in wardrobe, stealing designer items including Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent and Louis Vuitton handbags that she had collected over the years.

She said her CBE, presented to her by the late Queen, was priceless.

Mr Cordey said police traced the car used in the burglaries and the defendants were arrested in the West Midlands in mid-April.

Stephanie Stokoe, whose home was burgled in Whitburn, said in a victim personal statement she would “would never get over walking in to find our home torn to pieces”.

Mrs McCardle’s statement, read in court, said the thieves had “not only stolen our belongings but… our privacy and security”.

The court heard the gang arrived in the UK via a ferry from Calais to Dover in a Citroen C3 and a Ford motorhome last March.

They headed to London, then drove to the North East a few days later.

The gang used the Citroen to travel to break-ins and the motorhome was a base where they slept, the prosecution said.

The defendants attended by video link from prison and had an Italian interpreter to translate the hearing.

Giacomo Nikolov, Jela Jovanovic and Charlie Jovanovic pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary. Valentino Nikolov was found guilty of the same offence after a trial in March.