Dieselgate: Ex-Audi boss fined £1m and receives suspended sentence

The former boss of Audi and Volkswagen Group board member, Rupert Stadler, has been sentenced for his involvement in the 2015 dieselgate emissions scandal.

Stadler received a suspended sentence of one year and nine months, as well as €1.1 million (£940,000) for fraud by negligence.

He has been on trial at a Munich court since 2020 and confessed to his role in the diesel scandal last month (May 2023).

Stadler’s lawyer said that, while he did not know vehicles had been manipulated, he did recognise it was a possibility and accepted there was need for more care.

Stadler had previously rejected any allegations of involvement or visibility of the dieselgate scandal.

The judge handed out a lesser sentence due to the confession.

Stadler is the first former Volkswagen Group board member to admit knowledge of the diesel manipulation measures through the use of illegal software, admitting regret and failure to stop manipulated cars from going on sale.

Former Audi board member responsible for drivetrain development Wolfgang Hatz and former Audi drivetrain development engineer Giovanni Pamio, co-defendants in the case, have been similarly charged with fraud by negligence in matters relating to the diesel emission manipulation scandal.

Hatz was handed a two-year suspended sentence and a fine of €400,000 (£344,000), while Pamio has received a suspended sentence of nine months and a €50,000 (£43,000) fine.

In plea deals similar to that sort by Stadler, both Hatz and Pamio admitted to guilt in the manipulation of diesel emissions in engines developed and produced by Audi.

VW Group has been hit with multiple court cases across the globe in the past few years.

In the UK, it reached an out of court settlement with claimants last year, paying out £193m to the 91,000 owners that had joined the claim.