West Bromwich shop loses licence after illegal goods found and knife sold to teenager

Mandeep Sharma, owner of Hill Top Supermarket in West Bromwich, had his licence revoked by Sandwell Council after leaving a review hearing “astounded” over a catalogue of illegal tobacco products, alcohol, prescription-only drugs, and fake mobile phones found at his store last year.

A 15-year-old was also sold a pack of knives unchallenged at the store as part of an undercover sting by Sandwell’s trading standards.

West Midlands Police admitted it was “horrified” by Mr Sharma’s lack of understanding of the law and regulations.

A search of the shop in Hill Top in October last year found illegal cigarettes, banned snus and high-strength vapes as well as illicit alcohol.

Hunderds of packets of Sildenafil, a prescription-only erectile dysfunction medicine commonly referred to as Viagra, were also found last year alongside bottles of Spumante labelled as genuine prosecco.

Sandwell’s trading standards returned later that week as part of an undercover sting which saw the shop sell a knife to a 15-year-old during a test purchase without asking for ID.

Mr Sharma, who broke down during the hearing held in Oldbury on Wednesday (February 26), said he would not have to be “working like a donkey” if he was ‘making so much money’ from selling illicit goods and denied most of the counterfeit and illegal products confiscated during the inspection belonged to him.

He told the hearing that packets of cigarettes, found in the ceiling of the shop, had been left there by a previous owner despite the tobacco dating to 2021 – two years after he took over running the shop.

He also said the viagra was for personal use and had ordered box only for 690 to turn up “by mistake.” Nearly 5,000 tablets and jelly sachets were found stored in the shop.

Licensing committee chair Cllr Jag Singh, who is also a trained chemist, told Mr Sharma he was “astounded” and advised him to speak to his GP about free prescriptions as there was no need to order black market medicine from India.

During the hearing, Mr Sharma also admitted he was not aware of Challenge 25, the policy that asks those who look under 25 to show ID when buying age-restricted products, and said he had never read the conditions of his licence “in his life.”

The same licence included rules on notifying trading standards if there were illicit goods on the premises and not buying from sellers who came into the shop – just two conditions that were broken.

He was also unaware that it was illegal to have smuggled goods in his shop, whether he was selling them or not, and believed tobacco products that had long been banned in the UK, were safe and legal to sell.

Nicola Stansbie from West Midlands Police said she was “horrified” by Mr Sharma’s lack of awareness and called for his licence to be revoked.

Cllr Richard Jeffcoat said Mr Sharma had “very bad luck” by having such a high quantity of fake and illegal goods in his shop that apparently did not belong to him or were not available for sale.

Cllr Singh added:“You have alcohol which doesn’t have genuine labels, you are selling products which you shouldn’t be selling, you’ve got cigarettes which you definitely shouldn’t be selling and you’ve got a large quantity of pharmaceutical medicine but you’re not running a pharmacy but it’s a very large supply even for personal use.

“Do you see the point I am making here? There’s a lot of things going on here, it’s not just one instance. It’s a large number of items in your possession.”