A MAN who led a battle against car parking charges after people were fined despite paying has won his fight in court.

Tyrone Larmour was fined by HX Car Park Management after using their facility on Vulcan Lane, Workington, despite having paid to park there on March 9.

However the firm claimed the ticket was not valid because three letters of the registration number were missing.

Mr Larmour, of Briar Bank, Cockermouth, appealed the fine but the company refused to cancel the ticket.

And since speaking out about his experience to the Times & Star, dozens of people came forward with similar claims, saying the machine was faulty.

But now a judge at Workington’s county court found in favour of Mr Larmour.

He said: “I’m chuffed to bits, it was a stressful process, I felt a lot of pressure and anxiety, but justice won.”

In June, Mr Larmour applied for the removal of implied right of access for HX Car Park Management Ltd, which meant no one representing the company could access his land and knock on his door. He did this after correspondence with HX led him to believe debt collectors would come to his home to collect money from the unpaid fine, which rose to £160.

And Sue Hayman, Workington MP, got behind motorists and encouraged people to boycott the car park. Her attempts to speak with HX’s representatives failed, however she is now awaiting a date to meet with them.

She said: “I’m absolutely delighted with him winning. It’s absolutely the right decision, the judge agrees with us that it’s utterly unreasonable to give huge fines to people who have paid for their ticket.”

She added she was talking to other MPs around the country who had similar issues with HX elsewhere in the country.

People from the Whitehaven area who had been fined by the company after using the Workington car park also called on Trudy Harrison, Copeland MP, to help them.

Other motorists who feel they have been wrongly fined by HX attended Mr Larmour’s hearing on Monday.

Mr Larmour said: “These people are in the same boat as I was and the outcome of my case can only help them. I can’t understand how it got this far, HX lost nothing because I had paid to park there, so I don’t know why they pursued it.”

Last year Mr Larmour launched a Facebook Page called Unfair Parking Fines to help people who had been wrongly issued with a fine.

He said he will continue running the page to help others.

HX declined to comment.