VW boss facing 7 years in US jail

A GERMAN Volkswagen executive has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and fraud over a scheme to cheat emission rules on nearly 600,000 vehicles.

Oliver Schmidt, 48, a former manager of a VW office in Detroit, was arrested in January while on holiday in Miami.

He appeared before District Judge Sean Cox in a Detroit court as part of the US government’s case against the car-maker.

He told Judge Cox yesterday that VW management directed him in 2015 not to discuss the software.

Schmidt faces up to five years in prison for conspiracy to defraud the US, wire fraud and violation of the Clean Air Act.

A second count of giving a false statement under the Clean Air Act carries a possible sentence of up to two years. He will be sentenced on December 6. In 2015, it emerged Volkswagen used software that activated emission controls in its vehicles when they were being tested but turned them off during driving.

VW pleaded guilty in March to defrauding the US government and agreed to pay around £3.3billion in penalties, on top of billions more to buy back cars.