Asian chappie in the queue in front of me took three Oyster cards up to the
counter and after inserting his credit card in the reader and signing lots
of bits of paper, walked away without them, before waiting to one of the
terminals with his family (I assume to fly home).

I guess that he was getting a refund. I didn't know you could do that at a
station.

OTOH there's sign saying "drop them in this box and the remaining credit
will go to charity" - the railway children fund (or similar)

Oh and this week's entry in the most pointless holiday snap competition is
"Here's a picture of the (large) group of us standing in the queue at the
underground station" WTF! (not the Asian chappie, a bunch of Europeans)

Tim