Downes said: “You know all about it don’t you, Mr Hamilton? Come on!” He later
asked him directly: “Can you remember altering the date and time of your
BlackBerry?” “No,” Hamilton replied.
Hamilton is suing Di Resta for wrongful termination of contract and loss of
earnings after being sacked by him in 2012. Di Resta claims that he was
misled over a multi-million pound deal with energy drinks company Go Fast.
Earlier in the day the court was told that a box belonging to Hamilton
containing mobile phones, video recorders and a computer had gone missing
during a house move earlier this year.
Downes expressed surprise that Hamilton could have mislaid such an important
box. “You knew [the contents] would be highly controversial in these
proceedings, didn’t you?” Downes said. “Correct,” Hamilton said.
Asked whether he thought of reporting such a significant loss to the police,
Hamilton told the court that he did get in touch with his local police
station but did not report a crime or make an insurance claim as he could
“not guarantee whether the box had been stolen or thrown away”.
After lunch Hamilton asked to recall some of his evidence, saying that he had
been “nervous as hell” in the morning.
He suggested that perhaps one of the builders who helped him with the move had
mistakenly taken the box. “I suggest to you that you now need to change your
story to explain why you didn’t [make a claim or file a police report],”
Downes said.
Hamilton also asked to clarify his tax status, revealing that he is domiciled
in Grenada for tax purposes but also pays taxes in the UK where he lives and
works.