McLaren suspect's £50,000 legal bill

But as the Formula One espionage battle moved to London, Coughlan and his wife Judy refused to give details of how they came into possession of the information for fear of incriminating themselves.

Nigel Tozzi QC, for Ferrari, told Mr Justice Briggs the couple had "behaved disgracefully in taking these documents they knew they were not entitled to and copying them".

He said the Italian manufacturer would have been "blissfully ignorant" of the alleged theft "but for a tip-off".

It was following the tip-off that Ferrari went to the High Court on July 2 and won an order to search the Coughlans' home in Surrey, near McLaren's Woking base.

Tozzi told the judge some 780 pages had been recovered along with two computer discs on which the documents had been copied. The judge agreed the search had been 'justified' and ordered the Coughlans to pay the costs of the court application and the search.

Mr Coughlan's counsel, Martin Palmer, was granted a time extension to comply with a court order that the couple make sworn statements detailing everything they know about the stolen material.

Ferrari's British-born technical manager Nigel Stepney faces legal proceedings in Italy for allegedly passing on the private technical data. He has also been accused of sabotaging Ferrari's F1 cars.

Stepney denies having the papers taken from Ferrari's Maranello factory or passing them on to Coughlan.

• India's Narain Karthikeyan is in line to replace dropped Dutch driver Christijan Albers at Spyker.

Team boss Colin Kolles said Karthikeyan, who raced for him at Jordan in 2005 and is now a Williams test driver, was competing for the spot with Austria's Christian Klien.

Markus Winkelhock, the Spyker test driver, may be drafted in just for next week's German Grand Prix.