Formula one’s governing body has announced that McLaren will not be sanctioned for having confidential Ferrari technical data in their possession due to “insufficient evidence” of how and whether the material had been used.

Following a six-hour hearing of the world motor sport council in Paris, the FIA’s highest power, the verdict was “no penalty.” However, the FIA announced if the information stolen from Ferrari is found to be used in the future, McLaren could be excluded from this year’s championship, and also in 2008.

“The WMSC is satisfied that McLaren was in possession of confidential Ferrari information and is therefore in breach of Article 151c of the International Sporting Code,” read a world motor sport council statement. “However, there is insufficient evidence that this information was used in such a way as to interfere improperly with the FIA formula one world championship. We therefore impose no penalty.

“But if it is found in the future that the Ferrari information has been used to the detriment of the championship, we reserve the right to invite McLaren back in front of the WMSC where it will face the possibility of exclusion from not only the 2007 championship, but also the 2008 championship.”

Despite the WMSC’s decision, the McLaren team principal Ron Dennis was not enamoured, even though it means his team - and drivers Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso - are free to fight for the title. “The process has been long and detailed,” he said. “Although I’m not completely comfortable with the outcome, the punishment fits the crime.”

Nigel Stepney - who Ferrari dismissed as their head of performance development - and McLaren’s suspended chief designer, Mike Coughlan, are the men accused of leaking and receiving the confidential information respectively and their futures will now be decided by the FIA.

The WMSC’s statement continued: “The WMSC will also invite Mr Stepney and Mr Coughlan to show reason why they should not be banned from international motor sport for a lengthy period, and the WMSC has delegated authority to deal with this matter to the legal department of the FIA.”

A MOMENT captured in time: Having spied its prey, an osprey dives in and wrenches a brown trout struggling from the water.

It happened in a split second, but The Scotsman photographer Ian Rutherford waited for three days in a hide on the banks of the Rothiemurchus Estate fisheries in the Cairngorms National Park before capturing these images.

Starting at 5am each day, and with help and advice from wildlife ranger Keith Collins, Ian watched and shot the protected species as they dived into the waters to get food for their chicks.

He finally captured these images at 5.30 yesterday morning.

“The actual moment where the osprey would spot the fish and dive into the water took just a split second,” he said, describing the bird’s hunting habits. “They plunge their talons and head under the water initially, so they can see the fish, then they grapple with their heads above the surface for up to 30 seconds at times to get a grip on it, and fly off. To be able to lift themselves and a two-pound fish out of the water with wet feathers must take incredible power.”

Ian said getting the perfect image was as much down to luck as it was to time and patience.

“They would often dive in too far away, or disappear behind an island,” he said. “Also, there were a few abortive attempts from the birds, when they’d let go of the fish, so it really was a case of luck and patience in capturing the right image.”

The fisheries at the Rothiemurchus Estate are considered one of the prime sites in Scotland for watching ospreys and the public can pay to come and see them feed in the waters.

The protected species is currently in the headlines, as the RSPB Loch Garten Osprey Centre, near Aviemore, is monitoring an osprey nest awaiting the hatching of a clutch of eggs.

Hopes had been raised when one of the three hatched several days ago, but joy turned to tragedy yesterday when it was reported that the father, known as Henry, accidentally trampled on and killed the chick.

A spokesman for the RSPB said: “He appeared to have freed himself in the nest, but when he returned from his next trip a couple of hours later, the chick appeared lifeless when its mother, EJ, tried to feed it. There have been no signs of life since, and it appears that Henry may have trodden on the tiny chick.”

THE former home of the convicted murderer Peter Tobin is to be searched by police from Monday as part of an investigation into the disappearance of the Falkirk schoolgirl Vicky Hamilton 16 years ago.

Forensic officers from Lothian and Borders Police will also dig up the garden at the property in Bathgate, West Lothian.

Tobin is serving a life sentence for the rape and murder of the Polish student Angelika Kluk, 23, in Glasgow last year.

He lived in Bathgate at the time Vicky, 15, vanished in 1991 while she was waiting for a bus. She had changed buses in Bathgate while travelling from Livingston, where she had been visiting her sister, to her home near Falkirk.

Michael Hamilton, Vicky’s father, last night said: “We welcome this move 100 per cent. Hopefully, they are going to find something to prove Tobin was involved. It would give us great peace of mind.

“But we will now have to wait and see what the police can tell us. It is good to have Vicky’s case back in the limelight and I’m quite happy that the police have started doing something.”

The case was reopened last November and police are planning to speak to Tobin in jail.

Officers were at the property last week to speak to the current residents, as well as others living in the street.

The Scotsman understands that a full-scale search of the property will begin on Monday.

Police will also interview Tobin’s former wife, Cathy Wilson, who shared the West Lothian home at the time.

Mr Hamilton last week said he wanted to visit Tobin to ask him whether he killed his daughter.

Tobin was convicted of murdering Ms Kluk in September last year then dumping her body underneath St Patrick’s Church in Anderston, Glasgow. He will serve 21 years before being eligible to apply for parole.

Tobin received a further 30-month sentence for breaching the terms of the sex offenders’ register.

It emerged after his trial that Tobin, 60, had been on the run for almost a year before he killed Ms Kluk.

Tobin vanished from his Paisley home in October 2005 following an incident involving a young woman.

Officers found him 11 months later, but by that time he had killed Miss Kluk and hidden her mutilated body under the floor of the church.

Vick Hamilton’s disappearance sparked one of Scotland’s biggest missing-person inquiries.

More than 7,000 people were interviewed, 4,000 statements taken and 12,000 documents seized. Despite that, officers have found no trace of her.

Last year, Bert Swanson, who heads the serious-crime review unit at Lothian and Borders Police, revealed that the case was being re-examined and treated, for the first time, as a murder inquiry.

Mr Swanson said that advances in DNA techniques might provide a vital clue to the identity of the killer, adding that Vicky’s black leather purse - which was found close to the St Andrew Square bus station in Edinburgh 11 days after she went missing - would undergo DNA analysis.

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