Lawyers are currently preparing what is claimed could be the largest legal action in UK history – a class action against Volkswagen and its marketeers on behalf of all VW owners.

This follows the latest allegations that VW duped British officials into believing that its 2014 diesel cars were much less polluting, and therefore safer than previous models. This was done by rigging one VW Beetle to produce negligible pollution and running it in a laboratory where ten monkeys were forced to inhale the exhaust fumes, to prove that VWs on the road were safe.

However in 2012 more than 70,000 people in Europe died prematurely because of nitrogen dioxide pollution, which comes primarily from diesel vehicles, and Volkswagen have already paid more than £17 billion in fines in the USA for its federal fraud and conspiracy.

The illegal and lethal actions of the car manufacturers echo those of Big Tobacco, which once lied that cigarettes were not addictive.