Stepney sentenced over spygate scandal

Disgraced former Ferrari engineer Nigel Stepney has been handed a jail term over the 2007 F1 spygate scandal after entering a plea bargain with an Italian court - but is unlikely to spend any time behind bars.

Stepney was dismissed by the team after it was found that he had passed confidential information about Ferrari's car to McLaren engineer Mike Coughlan.

Both lost their jobs over the scandal while McLaren was also fined $100 million by the FIA and was excluded from the constructors' championship.

Ferrari launched criminal proceedings against Stepney before the spygate scandal actually broke as he was also accused of attempting to sabotage the teams cars, with a mysterious white powder being found around the fuel cap of both cars in Monaco and also in the pocket of Stepney's trousers - although the man himself insisted he had been set up.

According to Reuters, quoting local media reports, Stepney was handed a 20 month jail term by a court in Sassuolo near Ferrari's Maranello base and was also fined 600 Euro.

Thanks to the plea bargain entered by Stepney's legal team, he is unlikely to serve any time in prison over the scandal.

Stepney is now working with the Sumo Power GT team in the FIA GT1 World Championship.