A PARKING attendant found himself in a fine mess, when an out-of-control machine started spitting hundreds of tickets at him.

The malfunctioning machine printed hundreds of tickets for 15 minutes before the harrassed official managed to cut the power.

A crowd gathered in amusement to watch his battle with the machine in Harrogate.

They included John Graham, 71, who said: "I'd been camping locally with my wife and we decided to go in to the centre for the day.

"As we walked around the corner near Betty's Tea Room we saw the machine.

"It machine was printing continuously and these tickets just kept on coming. I would say that it was coming out at a ticket a second.

"At the start there was no parking attendant but I think someone must have alerted them.

"When he showed up he got straight on the radio and started getting quite stressed - much to the amusement of all the onlookers."

John, of Lytham in Lancashire, photographed the spectacle as the Saturday crowd started to gather.

He added: "It must of been going on for about 15 minutes. It was just spewing these tickets all over the floor and the attendant did not see the funny side.

"Eventually he opened the machine and I don't know what he did but he managed to switch the power off.

"The crowd were all laughing and everyone was getting their phones out. He was definitely having a bad ticket day."