He may be the golden boy of Formula One and one of the highest paid sports stars Britain has ever produced, but even Lewis Hamilton can be the victim of crime. With iPod and MP3 player crime on the rise the world over, the Formula One McLaren driver suffered the theft of his iPod last weekend.

Hamilton was with his girlfriend, Pussy Cat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger, in a hotel in Spain. As they left the hotel, checking out and walking towards their Mercedes, two men did a smash and grab on the couple’s bags. They grabbed a leather bag and a rucksack from the boot of the car and fled, forcing bodyguards to give chase.

Despite the thieves dropping the rucksack, they got away with the leather bag, which contained the Formula One driver’s iPod.

The couple were in the city because Nicole Scherzinger was performing that weekend in a concert.