Fare dodgers on the London Underground have cost Transport for London (TfL)nearly £2million over the last four years.

The amount of money TfL collected from not carrying a valid ticket or Oyster card for their journey now looks set to rise to £438,000.

Figures revealed in a Freedom of Information (FoI) request show from the start of April 2017 until March 2018, TfL collected £416,000 in fines from unpaid fares.

The year before - from April 2016 to March, 21 2017 - TfL recovered £440,000.

If figures for the last financial year rose by the same amount as the rest of the year it looks like TfL could be collecting over £450,000 from fare dodgers on the underground.

In the financial year of 2014 (April 1 2014 to March 31 2015) TfL collected just over £520,000 from people fined for London Underground fare evasion.

For the 2016 financial year they collected over £435,000 in London Underground fines.

Commenting on the figures, Keith Prince, chairman of the London assembly transport committee and London assembly member for Havering and Redbridge said:

“It’s important that people dodging fares are discouraged are fined and if they are repeat offenders there needs to be further sanctions against them.”

The GLA member said that TfL are projecting a £1m deficit and the money collected from fare evasion could be used to stem the shortfall.

TfL said that fare evasion takes money away from the company that would allow it to develop their infrastructure.

They said: “We have strategies in place to tackle fare evasion head on and a commitment to reduce any form of ticketing irregularities, which has helped fare evasion to fall to around two per cent of all journeys, which is low compared to other transport authorities around the world.”