The case involved Nigel Stepney , who used to work for Ferrari and was working at the time for McLaren . It also included Mike Coughlan , who was working for McLaren and his wife Trudy Coughlan . The original case involved allegations made by the Ferrari Formula One team against a former employee ( Nigel Stepney ) , a senior McLaren engineer , Mike Coughlan , and his wife Trudy Coughlan concerning the theft of technical information .