Wife of McLaren F1 designer 'caught copying Ferrari's secrets'

It is among the most explosive tales of alleged industrial espionage that the sporting world has heard: a disenchanted senior executive at the Ferrari Formula One team passes a dossier of information to the chief designer of its arch British rival, McLaren, whose young driver, Lewis Hamilton, currently leads the drivers' championship.

But a most improbable twist to the tale of intrigue emerged at the High Court in London yesterday when Ferrari began a compensation suit against Mike Coughlan, the McLaren designer accused of receiving the documents. The Italians, it was alleged, got wind of the alleged conspiracy when Mr Coughlan's wife walked into a photocopying shop in Woking, Surrey, with the 780-page dossier and began copying it. A staff member from the shop tipped off Ferrari after realising that the documents were confidential and belonged to the Italian team.

"We would not have found out about it were it not from a tip-off by the photocopying agency," Ferrari's QC, Nigel Tozzi, told the judge, Mr Justice John Briggs. "We would be blissfully ignorant of all this were it not for a tip-off we received."

The Coughlans, Mr Tozzi said, "behaved disgracefully by taking these documents, knowing they were not entitled to them, keeping them and copying them".

The claims about Mrs Coughlan surfaced at a preliminary hearing into Ferrari's court case against Mr Coughlan, 45, who has been suspended by McLaren, whose base is a short distance from the photocopying shop, and his wife.

No details were given in court about how Ferrari alleges the Coughlans came into possession of the documents, which are at the heart of a controversy that has gripped the sport for the past week. But it is now clear that the case centres on two computer disks believed to contain Ferrari technical information.

After the tip-off, these were seized in a search by investigators at Mr Coughlan's home. Mr Coughlan was immediately suspended, while Nigel Stepney - an old friend with whom he worked at the Benetton Formula One team in the 1990s - has already been fired.

Mr Stepney, 48, who played a key role in the success of the former world champion Michael Schumacher with Ferrari, claims he is the victim of a "dirty tricks'' campaign. McLaren also denies any involvement and has promised to co-operate fully with the investigation launched by the sport's governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile.

But yesterday's hearing touched tantalisingly on how much McLaren's managing director, Jonathan Neale, knew about the dossier.

The court heard that Mr Neale was aware that Mr Coughlan had the documents, but there was no definitive answer on whether Mr Neale was told about the situation before Ferrari launched its legal action against the Coughlans - or after. "It is unclear when and how Neale was told about the documents," Mr Tozzi said.

Ferrari remains unhappy with the explanation given by Mr Coughlan about how he came into possession of the Ferrari material, because there is a "date discrepancy" between what he has said and date records obtained from the photocopying shop, the court heard.

The hearing was adjourned until today for Mr Coughlan to provide sworn affidavits on how he came to be in possession of the Ferrari documents. His lawyers are considering whether doing so would potentially affect their rights to avoid self-incrimination in respect of related criminal proceedings in Italy.