A new film by French director Stephane Benhamou called The No 5 War has revealed further dealings between Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel (pictured) and the Vichy regime that ruled wartime Paris

Coco Chanel, once one of the world's richest women, used her Nazi links to regain ownership of her perfume empire from her Jewish business partners.

The French designer's dark past has been uncovered in recent years, which included a lengthy love affair with a senior Nazi officer.

But a new film by French director Stephane Benhamou called The No 5 War has revealed further dealings between Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel and the Vichy regime that ruled wartime Paris.

Pierre and Paul Wertheimer became Chanel's partners in 1924 after backing the full financial and production costs of the revolutionary No 5 scent.

After the deal was struck she received only 10 per cent of profits, 70 per cent went to the Wertheimers, while 20 per cent was transferred to Paris department store Galeries Lafayette.

But never satisfied with how ownership and profits were divided, she became involved with an aristocratic Abwehr spymaster called Hans Günther von Dincklage - who was 13 years younger than her, reports Israeli newspaper Hareetz.

She agreed to help German intelligence operations in exchange for Von Dincklage promising to try and strip the Wertheimers of their perfume ownership.

Chanel used Aryan laws that stripped Jewish people of their property rights under Nazi rule.

The brothers escaped and lived in exile in New York, where they had started to re-start production of the perfume, Benhamou's new film claims.

Chanel used Aryan laws that stripped Jewish people of their property rights under Nazi rule to try to oust her No 5 business partners Pierre and Paul Wertheimer. She is pictured with the Duke of Westminster (left) and Winston Churchill (right) in northern France

Unfortunately for her however, the pair had already transferred ownership to a Christian friend, Felix Amiot.

But she persisted, maintaining in 1941 that the sale was fake and that she should regain full property rights.

The Germans refused to comply with her demands, not wanting to upset their relationship with Amiot as he manufactured military aircraft.

When Paris was finally liberated from the Nazis in 1944 Chanel was investigated for collaborating with the enemy, but was never prosecuted due to a lack of evidence.

The new film premieres at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival next Monday and Tuesday.

One of her friends, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, is rumoured to have saved her.

She moved to Switzerland with her German lover and decided to settle with the Wertheimers, which resulted in a $9million (£6.75m) payout for her share of perfume sales during the Second World War.

They didn't want to sue her over the ordeal so as not to damage the brand.

The film will premiere at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival next Monday and Tuesday.

It follows the biography written by Hal Vaughan in 2011 - Sleeping With The Enemy: Coco Chanel's Secret War.