Commands out of sync; you can't run this command now

I am trying to execute my PHP code, which calls two MySQL queries via mysqli, and get the error "Commands out of sync; you can't run this command now".

Here is the code I am using

<?php
$con = mysqli_connect("localhost", "user", "password", "db");
if (!$con) {
    echo "Can't connect to MySQL Server. Errorcode: %sn". Mysqli_connect_error();
    exit;
}
$con->query("SET NAMES 'utf8'");
$brand ="o";
$countQuery = "SELECT ARTICLE_NO FROM AUCTIONS WHERE upper(ARTICLE_NAME) LIKE % ? %";
if ($numRecords = $con->prepare($countQuery)) {
    $numRecords->bind_param("s", $brand);
    $numRecords->execute();
    $data = $con->query($countQuery) or die(print_r($con->error));
    $rowcount = $data->num_rows;
    $rows = getRowsByArticleSearch("test", "Auctions", " ");
    $last = ceil($rowcount/$page_rows);
}  else {

print_r($con->error);
}
foreach ($rows as $row) {
    $pk = $row['ARTICLE_NO'];
    echo '<tr>' . "n";
    echo '<td><a href="#" onclick="updateByPk('Layer2', '' . $pk . '')">'.$row['USERNAME'].'</a></td>' . "n";
    echo '<td><a href="#" onclick="updateByPk('Layer2', '' . $pk . '')">'.$row['shortDate'].'</a></td>' . "n";
    echo '<td><a href="#" onclick="deleterec('Layer2', '' . $pk . '')">DELETE RECORD</a></td>' . "n";
    echo '</tr>' . "n";
}
function getRowsByArticleSearch($searchString, $table, $max) {
    $con = mysqli_connect("localhost", "user", "password", "db");
    $recordsQuery = "SELECT ARTICLE_NO, USERNAME, ACCESSSTARTS, ARTICLE_NAME, date_format(str_to_date(ACCESSSTARTS, '%d/%m/%Y %k:%i:%s'), '%d %m %Y' ) AS shortDate FROM AUCTIONS WHERE upper(ARTICLE_NAME) LIKE '%?%' ORDER BY str_to_date(ACCESSSTARTS, '%d/%m/%Y %k:%i:%s')" . $max;
    if ($getRecords = $con->prepare($recordsQuery)) {
        $getRecords->bind_param("s", $searchString);
        $getRecords->execute();
        $getRecords->bind_result($ARTICLE_NO, $USERNAME, $ACCESSSTARTS, $ARTICLE_NAME, $shortDate);
        while ($getRecords->fetch()) {
            $result = $con->query($recordsQuery);
            $rows = array();
            while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
                $rows[] = $row;
            }
            return $rows;
        }
    }
}

I have tried reading up on this, but I am unsure of what to do. I have read about store result and free result, however these have made no difference when using them. I am unsure at exactly which point this error is being caused, and would like to know why it is being caused, and how to fix it.

Going by my debug statements, the first if loop for countQuery is not even being entered, because of an error in my sql syntax near near '% ? %'. However if I just select * instead of trying to limit based on a LIKE clause, I still get the command out of sync error.