Transport bosses have pocketed £32million in penalty fares from passengers using Oyster cards who forget to "tap out" at stations.

City Hall chiefs last year banked more than £33million in "uncompleted" Oyster card journey fares on the Tube and DLR, but only issued £1 million in refunds. The rest has remained in Transport for London's coffers.

The figures, released under the Freedom of Information Act, prompted watchdogs to call for technology to prevent overcharging innocent commuters. More than 8.3million journeys between November 2005 and December 2007 triggered maximum penalties worth £33million. TfL says it knows of just £803,000 paid in refunds and estimates another £200,000 was returned. It means passengers are failing to check fare details and are oblivious to when the £4 over-charge occurs if they fail to tap out.

A spokesman for TfL said if passengers had validated their cards, they would have paid around £14million in fares - about £2.18 per journey - meaning the "true" profit was £18million.

He added that TfL had "no plans" to find ways to remind passengers to tap out or collect money owed, but confirmed it would refund those who complained. He said: "Everybody should now know how the Oyster pay-asyougo system works."

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