By IANS,
London : German police have arrested a jobless man who reportedly tried to sell personal information about Vijay Mallya’s Force India Formula One driver Adrian Sutil, according to reports Tuesday.
The man allegedly tried to sell a computer disc containing personal information about Sutil to a magazine.
The man, identified only as Dieter, is said to be well known to the police in the state of Bavaria.
Sutil, 24, is British racing hero Lewis Hamilton’s best friend, the Daily Telegraph reported.
The paper said the hard disc had information on financial transactions in Switzerland and private e-mail correspondence between Sutil and Hamilton.
“There were also private pictures involved although these are not thought to be of Hamilton nor of a sensitive nature,” the paper added.
The Force India Formula One team, co-owned by Indian billionaire Vijay Mallya and European e-businessman Michiel Mol, debuted this year in the FIA Formula One World Championship, heralding the start of a new era for Indian motor sport.
Its three drivers are Sutil, Giancarlo Fisichella and Vitantonio Liuzzi.
Police said Sutil’s father Jorge had “disposed of the computer some time ago” and it is unclear how Dieter came by it.
Dieter allegedly tried to sell the disc to Bild Motorsport magazine for 8,000 pounds ($15,600) but the editor called the police, who arrested the man at a petrol station near Munich in the weekend.
Sutil said: “Somebody took the hard disc out of a computer my father sold on, recognised me and wanted to make some money out of it. But after four days they caught him.”