A shop could lose its licence after selling a knife to a teenager, it has been revealed.

Hill Top Supermarket in Hill Top, West Bromwich, will have its licence reviewed by Sandwell Council after being caught selling the weapon to a teenager last year.

A search of the shop also found illegal cigarettes, vapes, alcohol and erectile dysfunction tablets during a separate inspection. 

As many as 200 packets of Sildenafil, a prescription-only erectile dysfunction medicine commonly referred to as Viagra, were found at the shop in Hill Top on October 1 last year alongside bottles of Spumante labelled as genuine prosecco. 

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.

This was the same week the Knife Angel statue, which was created using 100,000 confiscated knives as a reminder of the impact of knife crime, was unveiled outside Sandwell Council House in Oldbury as part of a two month stay in the borough.

As the opening ceremony for the 27-foot statue took place on October 2 last year, a 16-year-old boy was being rushed to hospital after being stabbed in broad daylight in West Bromwich town centre.

Sandwell Council’s licensing subcommittee will review the licence at a meeting on February 26. The council report names Mandeep Sharma as the shop’s licence holder and designated supervisor for the last four and a half years. 

Councillors have the power to change the licence – including banning alcohol sales – as well as suspend or revoke it completely as well as order the change of the licence holder. West Midlands Police called for the licence to be revoked over the “serious” breaches saying it was “disappointed and concerned.”

The force’s licensing officers said they had “no faith” that any changes to the licence would be followed. 

Sandwell’s trading standards said in the application for the review published as part of the licensing meeting’s agenda: “The cigarettes found are usually sold at a fraction of the cost of the normal cost of legitimate cigarettes, indicating that duty and value-added tax has been evaded. 

“The aim of maintaining a high price for tobacco products, having clear labelling in English with warnings and pictures that are unpleasant facts about tobacco use is to dissuading high use or to dissuade young people from starting to use tobacco products.”