A US court on Wednesday sentenced former Volkswagen executive Oliver Schmidt to seven years in prison for his role in the German automaker's "dieselgate" emissions cheating scandal.

Schmidt, who led Volkswagen's US regulatory compliance office from 2012 to March 2015, was also ordered by a federal judge in Detroit to pay a $400,000 fine.

He had pleaded guilty in August to charges he conspired to commit fraud and violate the US Clean Air Act