A nightclub bouncer has been sentenced to three years in jail after being convicted of attempting to blackmail racing legend Michael Schumacher for £12 million.
MailOnline revealed exclusively last year details of the extortion bid on the seven times former F1 champion who has not been seen in public since a horrific ski accident in 2013.
Three men including the race ace’s ex bodyguard Markus Fritsche, 53, were on trial after hard drives containing confidential pictures, videos and medical records were stolen from a computer.
Nightclub bouncer Yilmaz Tozturkan, also 53 and his IT expert son Daniel Lins, 30, denied blackmail and insisted they were offering the Schumacher family a ‘business deal’.
The trial has heard more than 1500 images, videos and confidential medical records were downloaded from a computer and given to Fritsche who passed them to Tozturkan who said he would ‘upload them on to the dark web’ unless money was paid.
Prosecutors in the German city of Wuppertal called for Tozturkan who is currently in jail on an unrelated crime to be given three years.
While his son was given six months suspended for his son and Fritsche two years, also suspended, the Schumacher family had been asking for five years for what they saw as his ‘ultimate betrayal’.
Formula one World champion Ferrrari driver Michael Schumacher (L) poses in Madonna di Campiglio with his wife Corinna 16 January 2003
Schumacher lives and received treatments in his £50million mansion in Gland, Switzerland
Nightclub bouncer Tozturkan, pictured, told the court the data had been ‘passed’ to him ‘by a nurse who was in need of money’
They also expressed fears that one hard drive containing material had not been recovered and was still missing despite repeated searches of the defendants’ properties.
A nurse who was sacked by the Schumacher family is also suspected of involvement in the case but failed to turn up to testify claiming she was ill.
Sabine Kehm, Schumacher’s manager for more than 25 years, had earlier told the court she had fired the nurse because she was inadequate at her job.
She then detailed how she suspected Fritsche and her of working together as they were ‘often together talking’ and she had ‘access to Schumacher’s record’.
The nurse, whose identity is known to MailOnline, has claimed she as a victim of a sex attack at the Schumacher residence in Gland on the shores of Lake Geneva, Switzerland.
There is no suggestion any of the Schumacher family are being investigated for involvement in the attack.
Schumacher’s former bodyguard Markus Fritsche is currently being prosecuted with two alleged accomplices for allegedly stealing compromising material of his boss in private situations
Pictured: The block of flats where Yilmaz Toztuerkan has a flat in the town of Wuppertal in Germany
Michael Schumacher of Germany and Ferrari during first qualifying session for the Bahrain F1 Grand Prix at the Bahrain International Circuit on April 2, 2005
Schumacher is pictured alongside wife Corinna, son Mick and daughter Gina in this still taken from the 2021 Netflix documentary Schumacher
Before the verdict was announced Tozturkan told the court:’I’m very sorry and ashamed for what I have done. It was a very disgusting thing. I take full responsibility.’
Thilo Damm, the Schumacher family lawyer, said they planned to appeal the ‘lenient sentences’.
He added:’We do not agree with everything the court said. You can rest assured that we will exhaust all legal possibilities at our disposal.
‘We don’t know where the missing hard drive is, I don’t have a crystal ball but so there is the possibility of another threat through the backdoor.’
