UK motorists join world-wide lawsuit against VW over car emissions scandal

In the wake of the emissions scandal, Volkswagen owners and previous owners could be awarded between £3,000 and £4,000 on average for affected vehicles, lawyers said.

Volkswagen Group admitted in September 2015 that 482,000 of its diesel vehicles in the US were fitted with defeat device software to switch engines to a cleaner mode when they were being tested for emissions.

The Wolfsburg-based company announced 11 million vehicles were affected worldwide - including almost 1.2 million in the UK.

The group legal action, the first in relation to the emissions scandal on behalf of UK customers, has been described as an opportunity to hold the firm to account.

Damon Parker, head of litigation at Harcus Sinclair UK Ltd, said: “We have paved the way for consumers who trusted but were let down by VW, Audi, Seat and Skoda to seek redress.

“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 environmental damage caused by their cars, they are penalised accordingly to discourage this sort of behaviour from happening again.”

Volkswagen has agreed a 15 billion US dollar (£11.8 billion) settlement with the US authorities and owners of affected vehicles.

In October a Spanish court ordered the owner of an affected Volkswagen car should be paid 5,000 euros (£4,300) by the manufacturer.

But there has been no such payouts in the UK.

It emerged last month the UK is one of four countries facing legal action by the European Union for not imposing penalties on Volkswagen over the issue.