Italian media reported that Nigel Stepney who was accused of sabotage and leaking confidential data to McLaren in a 2007 spy scandal, has been jail sentenced to a year and eight months on prison and handed a £516 fine - but Italy's legal system means he is highly unlikely to serve any time in prison after given a plea bargain. His lawyer Sonia Bartolini told Gazzetta di Modena after a hearing in Sassuolo, near Ferrari's Maranello base:
"We are satisfied, even if my client has always denied sabotage. We have to thank the prosecutor for agreeing to a plea bargain. Initially the sentence was much higher."
British Nigel Stepney was accused of passing technical Ferrari data to rivals McLaren while still working for the team and a s an effect McLaren were fined a record £63 million by the International Automobile Federation and stripped of all their constructors' points at a 2007 hearing after being found guilty of possessing a 780-page dossier of Ferrari data. Additionally, both Stepney and McLaren chief designer Mike Coughlan were sacked by their teams but the FIA couldn't take any formal action against Stepney just like in Briatore's CrashGate case, since he was not a licence holder of the governing body, but advised all F1 teams should have no professional ties with him at least for a two-year period.
