California prosecutors have filed the first U.S. consumer protection lawsuit against Toyota, claiming it engaged in "fraud" by hiding evidence of dangerous vehicle defects.

The District Attorney for Orange County, California, says his office along with private attorneys will sue the US sales arm of Toyota. They are charging that the world's top-selling automaker has endangered the public with defective vehicles, and engaged in deceptive business practices.

Tony Rackauckasm, Orange County Disrict Attorney, said, "These defects exist in hundreds of thousands of Toyotas sold to Californians over the last several years. Toyota has known about these defects but intentionally did not disclose them to California purchasers."

Toyota has recalled more than 8 million vehicles globally. The company says accelerator pedals on a range of its vehicles could become stuck because of a loose floor mat or a glitch in the pedal assembly.

Unintended acceleration in the company's Toyota and Lexus vehicles has been linked to at least five US crash deaths since 2007. Authorities are investigating reports alleging 47 other fatalities over the past decade.

All the bad press, however, hasn't affected sales at the Santa Monica Toyota dealership in California.

The General Manager said that February sales in 2010 beat those of 2009. He believes that after various investigations, many of the filed complaints about Toyota will be declared fraudulent.

Billy Rinker, General Manager of Santa Monica Toyota, said, "As far as all the lawsuits and stuff, it's people, really I think, just trying to take advantage of a situation...it seems like every time someone has an accident now they're looking for an excuse, an easy way out to try to blame it."

The Toyota defect has been a hotbed issue in California where a Highway Patrol trooper and three members of his family were killed in a crash last August involving a Toyota vehicle.

While this past Monday, an allegedly malfunctioning accelerator caused a driver to lose control of his Toyota Prius on a San Diego highway.