Stations around south London and north Surrey have ranked as some of the worst for charging commuters who fail to tap in and out properly.

Transport for London (TfL) statistics show that incomplete Oyster journeys cost travellers over £53 million between January and September last year.

The overground stations at Waterloo and Victoria charged the most overall, raking in £1.83 million and £1.35 million respectively, but other stations a little closer to home were also highly ranked.

Out of the 643 underground and overground stations around Greater London, Wimbledon station ranked at number 13 for the most pay outs for incomplete journeys, with travellers paying a total of £538,536 last year.

It was closely followed by Clapham Junction at number 15, with £491,674 in revenue from incomplete journeys, and East Croydon at number 19 where commuters paid out £413,920.

Stations in Surrey ranked best at the other end of the scale, with commuters at Epsom Downs paying just £2,286 for incomplete journeys, although this may be linked to the fact that the station does not accept Oyster cards.

Travellers to Belmont (ranked at 628) and Morden South (ranked at 626) also had relatively few incomplete journeys, with just £2,802 and £3,008 paid out last year.

TfL is a not-for-profit business, and all money is invested back into services.

Director of customer experience at TfL, Shashi Verma, said: “Our only objective is to ensure that customers pay the right fare. We ask that customers touch in and out which means we can guarantee to charge the correct fare while also reducing the cost to all Londoners of fare evasion.

“We are constantly working to reduce the number of incomplete journeys, which we recognise are often due to a simple oversight.

“Where we can, we give customers automatic refunds without needing to contact us. We also make it easy to obtain a refund online and through our local rate telephone number, and regularly remind customers to touch in and out to guarantee the right fare.

“The maximum fare includes the amount that would have been due had the customer touched in and out.”

A spokesman for TfL said the payments attached to incomplete journeys were not fines but were paid because it was not possible to accurately charge for the journey made.

He added that TfL always tries to automatically complete the journey if the travel pattern for the card suggests an accidental failure to touch out, and it is possible to assume the missing location. Commuters with an online Oyster account can also manually request a refund or amend a journey.

The spokesman also said that £21.4 million had been refunded to customers in 2015/2016, for reasons including incomplete journeys and automatic refunds.

South London and north Surrey ranking in the top 150 stations for charging commuters:

(13) Wimbledon - £538,536

(15) Clapham Junction - £491,674

(19) East Croydon - £413, 920

(44) Richmond - £252,444

(46) North Greenwich - £247,330

(48) Heathrow Terminals 1, 2 & 3 - £237,846

(57) Lewisham DLR - £200,217

(69) Balham overground - £181, 553

(75) Bromley South - £174, 673

(79) Lewisham overground - £156,888

(101) Surbiton - £142,729

(103) Kingston - £141,049

(104) Sutton - £140,304

(110) Greenwich - £131,676

(114) Putney - £126,148

(116) Heathrow Terminal 5 - £123,068

(125) West Croydon - £112,301

(136) Tooting Broadway - £101,744

(140) Twickenham - £96,509

(145) Heathrow Terminal Four - £93,395