'Worcester parking machine glitch drained my bank accounts'

Andy Gynn lost £610 in 122 transactions due to an error with the payment machines

Drivers have been left hundreds of pounds out of pocket after a glitch with car park payment machines.

Andy Gynn has been left in unarranged overdrafts after 122 transactions drained £610 from his bank accounts.

Countless drivers in Worcester have reported similar problems, with some being charged for car parks they have never used or weeks after the event.

Worcester City Council apologised and said it would reimburse the 1,500 or more people who had been affected.

Mr Gynn, who works in the city, said some transactions for parking at Newport Street and Copenhagen Street had gone through 10 times over three days.

"I've had a total of 122 transactions go through after the last three days putting all the accounts into unarranged overdrafts," he said.

"I'm due to go on holiday and can't access any of my accounts, which is more than an inconvenience."

Council leader Marc Bayliss told BBC Hereford and Worcester the problems had followed an upgrade to the machines

Emma Pearson was also affected - she said she has been charged for parking at St Martin's Gate which is "not somewhere I ever park".

"Suddenly I noticed a number of notifications come through on my banking app," she said. "There were seven transactions that went out on Wednesday and a further four on Thursday."

• Listen: 'We're on the case to get your money back'

Marc Bayliss, the council leader, said the company which operates the machines had "sought to do an upgrade to software last week and clearly a serious problem has gone wrong there".

The company has been issued with a contractual breach notice, the local authority said, adding it would review its arrangements with the provider.

The council said the source of the issue had been identified but not the solution and payments had still been taken on Friday morning.

Customers who have previously paid for parking using their bank cards rather than cash or the RingGo app had been affected and as a result card payment options remain disabled.

Online accounts showed the multiple payments

Ms Pearson said the error was "quite scary". "My first thought was, 'Have my cards been compromised?' It's been very stressful, very upsetting."

Ms Pearson criticised what she described as "an extremely poor response" from the council. "I feel they should be doing more to resolve this," she said.

Mr Bayliss said the authority was working closely with the company involved to get to the bottom of the issue and "doing our level best to get this fixed".

The council pledged refunds would be arranged within a week.