10,000 British drivers to sue Volkswagen for £30m compensation over ‘dieselgate’ scandal
The motorists feel they were tricked into paying extra for polluting cars and want a similar settlement to the £15billion deal reached with US car owners
VOLKSWAGEN could fork out millions of pounds in compensation to Brit motorists who feel cheated over the ‘dieselgate’ scandal.
Ten thousand car owners who feel they were tricked into buying the polluting vehicles want £3,000 in compensation – totalling £30 million.
The figure could even rise to £3.6billion if VW has to pay £3,000 for each of the 1.2million UK cars affected by the emissions saga, including Audis, Seats and Skodas.
Volkswagen bosses have already reached a £15billion settlement with 500,000 car owners in the US, but the German firm has offered no reimbursement to British and European motorists.
The dieselgate scandal, which involved 11 million cars worldwide, erupted in 2015 when Volkswagen were exposed for using tricks and dodgy practices to pass their emissions tests.
UK drivers who bought one of the affected cars had paid a premium for what they thought was a clean diesel car.
In fact the cars' emissions of NOx gases – a combination of the pollutants nitrogen oxide and nitrogen dioxide associated with childhood asthma - were far higher than the company stated.
Rather than offering any money in the UK, Volkswagen's 'fix' is simply to recall all the affected cars, but those who bought the vehicles now want to be compensated for paying extra for a polluting car.
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Damon Parker, head of litigation at Harcus Sinclair, the firm leading the legal action, said claimants "are angry and believe that VW might get away with it."
He added: "They feel that they have been left with no choice but to take legal action.
"We have paved the way for consumers who trusted but were let down by VW, Audi, Seat and Skoda to seek redress through our courts.
"It is only right that UK car owners affected by the scandal have the opportunity to seek compensation.
"We have secured funding so that those affected can bring this claim against VW at no cost to themselves.
"The group action aims to ensure that, if VW is found to have misled consumers about the environmental damage caused by their cars, they are penalised accordingly so as to discourage this sort of behaviour from happening again."