Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) first sold cars in Britain equipped with software that could cheat emissions tests in 2008, its UK boss said on Monday, but he shed little light on the root cause of the scandal. Europe’s largest automaker has admitted rigging diesel emissions tests in the United States, and Germany’s transport minister says it also manipulated them in Europe. The company’s UK managing director said that, while it first began selling cars in the country equipped with so-called defeat devices around seven years ago, he only became aware of such software last month.