Alexander Isak shares emotional statement as family of 'professional burglars' who targeted his home are jailed
20 May 2025, 22:26
A family of “professional travelling burglars” have been jailed after targeting the home of Premier League star Alexander Isak.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Siblings Valentino Nikolov, 32, Giacomo Nikolov, 28, and Jela Jovanovic, 43, as well as Jovanovic’s son Charlie Jovanovic, 23, arrived in the UK from Italy last year to “commit carefully planned burglaries targeting high value properties”, a court heard.
Arriving in Dover, the family drove across the country, sleeping in their motorhome, as they enacted a week-long crime spree, prosecutors said.
The three men carried out a slew of burglaries wearing gloves and masks to cover their tracks, while Jela Jovanovic waited outside in a getaway car.
Newcastle Crown Court heard they stole 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.
Opening up about the ordeal in a victim’s impact statement, Newcastle star Isak 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.”
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.
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 told the court the men had carried 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 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.
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.
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”.
