A CONTROVERSIAL car parking company accused of wrongly issuing dozens of charges has been told by a judge its machines are faulty – an allegation the firm has always denied.

HX Car Parking Management, which runs the Vulcan’s Lane car park in Workington, came under fire last year after around 100 people contacted Workington MP Sue Hayman to complain about the facility.

But Deputy District Judge Robert Forrester also warned motorists that the publicity the car park received does not mean the firm is always wrong.

Seven cases were heard at the county court in Workington on Monday this week, in which HX was pursuing unpaid penalty charge notices (PCNs) issued to motorists.

Four cases were won by the defendants and three found in favour of HX.

Last year Mrs Hayman called for people to boycott the car park after people complained they paid to park but received a PCN.

She said the machine was faulty and called for HX to address the problem.

Kenny Marland, director at HX, always denied this claim.

But Judge Forrester told James White, for HX, that the machines were faulty.

During the hearings which found in favour of motorists Mark Johnston, Patricia Hyslop, Mary Kendall and Gemma Wilkinson, Judge Forrester said: “There’s obviously problems with this car park.

“Either the residents of Workington are reckless and think they can get away with this, or on each occasion they experienced problems.”

Three of the defendants said they parked at the car park, which operates an automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) system, inserted the number plate in the parking machine and paid, but later received a PCN saying the registration number was incorrect.

Mrs Hyslop and Mrs Kendall both only had two characters of their registration on the printed ticket, while Miss Wilkinson’s ticket had a registration made out of eight letters, which the judge branded “gobbledygook.”

James White, for HX, claimed that the terms and conditions of the car park state that the payment at the machine needs to be validated by the correct registration number on the ticket.

He said: “If the ticket doesn’t match-up, there must have been a breach regardless of payment.”

But Judge Forrester said the machines are defective and questioned why the equipment would take money without a complete registration number.

However the judge found in favour of HX in its claims against James Bell, Pamela Barry and Sean McCarron.

Mr Bell was brought in front of the judge to answer the claim as the registered keeper of the vehicle, but it was his wife who was driving it.

She was issued with a PCN for overstaying at the Vulcan’s Lane facility by 23 minutes.

Mrs Bell claimed it was impossible for her to have arrived at the car park at 4.41pm, as stated by HX’s ANPR system, therefore she did not believe she had overstayed. But Judge Forrester found in favour of HX and ordered Mrs Bell to pay £260 to the company.

He said: “I think that you have seen all the publicity, you thought their machines are not reliable and thought that maybe they got it wrong with you.”

Mrs Kendall, 78, of Flimby, was issued with a (PCN) by HX last year.

The company claims Mrs Kendall did not input the correct registration number in the payment machine.

Her case was discontinued earlier this year but then the company decided to pursue her PCN.

At the hearing on Monday, judge Forrester found in her favour.

After the judgment, Mrs Kendall said: “I’ll never go there ever again.”

The judge said: “There seems to be some evidence that this machine is defective and doesn’t print in the tickets what it should.”

The judge also found in favour of Mr Johnston, who received a PCN because he did not pay for a ticket within 10 minutes of entering the car park.

HX said this was a breach of terms and conditions.

But Mr Johnston said he tried to pay and the keypad of the machine was locked.

He also tried to help another motorist who was having the same difficulty and then left after 13 minutes, being unable to pay to park.

Mr White, for HX, said that the company analyses trends and checks for inconsistencies to determine if a machine is faulty, but regardless of whether the machine is working correctly or not, if there has been a breach of terms and conditions of the car park, a PCN is issued.

But Judge Forrester said the machine relies on 3G or 4G network and Mr White could not provide any evidence of the reliability of signal at the car park’s location.

He added: “I do not accept that the time spent trying to work the claimant’s defective machine can be counted as parking, so it’s not outside the terms and conditions.”

Sean McCarron, whose case was heard in his absence, was ordered to pay £260 to HX after the judge found in favour of the company.

HX’s evidence showed his vehicle was in the car park for 42 minutes before he paid to park there.