Overtime spend at Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) was £5m higher than planned last year.
The figure comes amid claims by a union leader that ambulance chiefs are “completely reliant” on overtime and private firms.
Figures published by YAS show overtime overspend on ‘front line staff’ peaked in June when it was £850,000 over budget.
In all, nine months of 2013 saw six-figure overspends on overtime for paramedics and ambulance staff.
But ambulance chiefs have denied the overspend is unexpected.
It is thought the large overtime bill is one of the lowest for ambulance trusts in England.
David Williams, Deputy Director of A&E Operations at Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust, said: “The amount of money spent on overtime is in line with planned levels for 2013-14.
“It includes overtime to fill vacant posts and growth in demand which is more than 3% above last year, and end-of-shift overtime when crews are unavoidably delayed from finishing their shift as they are with patients.
“Patients’ needs remain at the heart of everything we do and our absolute focus is to ensure that we continue to deliver a safe, responsive and high quality service to the people of Yorkshire and the Humber.”
Last November YAS announced it would be recruiting more frontline staff and said it had boosted paramedic levels by 70 compared to 2012.
It also vowed to hire a further 150 paramedics developed in the organisation over the next three years.
Terry Cunliffe, regional organiser for Unite union, who have been in dispute with YAS for more than a year, said there were examples of workers doing overtime at the end of 12-hour days.
He said: “We’ve got members who are routinely working in excess of the European Time Directive.
“They are completely reliant on overtime because they don’t have sufficient skilled people to man all the ambulances they’ve got.
“The only way of dealing with that is increasing overtime and a massive utilisation of private ambulances.
“Obviously paramedics can’t leave patients if they have them at the end of a shift but our concern is that staff are doing overtime when they’re already tired.”
Working Time Regulations says workers should not exceed 48 hours across a seven day period.
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