Four estate and letting agents have been named on a list of 260 employers who have underpaid the minimum wage to staff.

The list is compiled by HMRC based on complaints to the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas), and employers found to have been underpaid are issued with a Notice of Underpayment by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Rochdale-based Keystone Properties (UK) Ltd was named for failing to pay four staff £4,395.

Orient Property Services in Redbridge failed to pay £2,520 to one worker.

Harrow-based Everstar Properties failed to pay £1,166 to two employees.

A fourth firm, Taylor Viscount Estate Agents, which appears to have been dissolved in September according to Companies House filings, failed to pay £3,267 to one worker.

Those with arrears of £100 or more are named on the list and have to pay arrears of wages to workers at current minimum wage rates and also face financial penalties of up to 200% of arrears, capped at £20,000 per worker. In the most serious cases employers can be prosecuted.

Common reasons for errors made include failing to pay workers travelling between jobs, deducting money from pay for uniforms and not paying for overtime.

The Government identified £1.7m in back pay for 16,000 workers across all 260 firms.

Business minister Margot James said: “There is no excuse for not paying staff the wages they’re entitled to and the Government will come down hard on businesses that break the rules.

“That’s why we are naming hundreds of employers who have been short-changing their workers; and to ensure there are consequences for their wallets as well as their reputation, we’ve levied millions in back pay and fines.”