Former Ferrari engineer Nigel Stepney, the man at the centre of the 2007 'Spygate' Formula One scandal, has been sentenced to a total of 20 months in prison by an Italian court on Wednesday for his part in the whole debacle.
Stepney was at the centre of the Spygate fiasco, which revolved around the theft of confidential information from the Ferrari team.
The investigation found that the information had been passed by Stepney to former McLaren engineer Mike Coughlan, though never concluded whether that information was then used by McLaren.
Ferrari launched criminal proceedings against Stepney in June 2007, shortly before the full scale of the scandal was made apparent to the public. He was accused of passing the data to Coughlan, and of attempting to 'sabotage' Ferrari's cars at the Monaco Grand Prix.
The verdict of the criminal investigation was revealed on Wednesday, with the court in Sassuolo issuing Stepney with a 600 Euro fine as well as the prison sentence, according to a report from the Reuters news agency.
However, due to the oddness of the Italian legal system, Reuters reports that he is unlikely to actually serve any of his sentence in prison.
The verdict was reportedly reached after Stepney entered into a plea bargain with the court.
"We are satisfied, even if my client has always denied sabotage," Stepney's lawyer Sonia Bartolini was quoted as saying by the Reuters report.
"We have to thank the prosecutor for agreeing to a plea bargain. Initially the sentence was much higher."
The FIA closed the Spygate case in September 2007, when a hearing into the case resulted in the McLaren team being fined a record $100 million by F1's governing body. The team was also excluded from the 2007 constructors championship.
Neither Stepney or Coughlan were directly charged by the FIA, though the governing body urged other teams not to work with them in the future.
Stepney has since found work in GT racing, while Coughlan was part of Stefan GP's unsuccessful attempt to secure a slot on the 2010 grid.
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