Michael Schumacher's Medical Records Reportedly Stolen And Offered For Sale

Medical notes purported to be those of retired Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher have been stolen and are being offered for sale, according to his management.

It issued a statement warning against the purchase and publication of the documents a week after it was announced that Schumacher was no longer in a coma and had left the hospital where he had been treated since a skiing accident in the French Alps five months ago.

Sabine Kehm, managing director of Schumacher's offices in Geneva, said: "For several days stolen documents and data are being offered for sale. The offeror claims them to be the medical file of Michael Schumacher.

"We cannot judge if these documents are authentic. However, the documents are clearly stolen. The theft has been reported. The authorities are involved.

"We expressly advise that both the purchase and the publication of such documents and data are forbidden. The contents of any medical files are totally private and confidential and must not made available to the public. We will therefore, in every single case, press for criminal charges and damages against any publication of the content or reference to the medical file."

A spokesman for the University Hospital of Lausanne later confirmed that Schumacher, who lives with his family in a town in western Switzerland between Lausanne and Geneva, had arrived there. The centre treated former Zairean dictator Mobutu Sese Seko for cancer in the mid-1990s and last year its forensic scientists analysed the remains of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for traces of poison.

Schumacher underwent two operations to remove life-threatening blood clots after the accident, before being put into a medically induced coma.

Since then, Schumacher's management company has said that he was having short moments of consciousness, although few other details have emerged.

Schumacher, who earned universal acclaim for his uncommon and sometimes ruthless driving talent, retired from Formula One in 2012 after garnering an unmatched seven world titles. He has a home on the shores of Lake Geneva, where his wife Corinna is reported to have spent £10m on building a medical suite.

Earlier this year, French investigators ruled out any criminal wrongdoing in Schumacher's accident. The 45-year-old driver suffered serious head injuries in December when he fell and hit the right side of his head on a rock off to the side of a demarcated slope in Meribel.