Schoolboy, 15, who made £14k from tuck-shop to pay Oxbridge fees threatened with suspension

Schoolboy, 15, who made £14k from tuck-shop to pay Oxbridge fees threatened with suspension

Young entrepreneur Tommie Rose has been selling chocolate, crisps and fizzy drinks to fellow pupils for three years

A schoolboy who made £14,000 selling sweets from a “black market” tuck-shop has been threatened by teachers with suspension if he continues with the enterprise.

Young entrepreneur Tommie Rose, 15, has been selling chocolate, crisps and fizzy drinks to fellow pupils for three years to raise fees to attend Oxbridge, where he hopes to study business.

But now bosses at Buile Hill High School, Salford, Greater Manchester, have said Tommie will be suspended if he does shut down the tuck-shop, which they say breaches healthy-eating guidelines.

The teenager, who lives on the Ordsall estate in Salford, was suspended from his previous school, Oasis Academy near the BBC studios at Media City, for running a similar tuck-shop, which he says was inspired by TV shows such as Dragon’s Den and the Apprentice.

He has been putting his £60-70 daily earnings from the business into a trust fund to pay the tuition fees for a degree from a top university, preferably Oxford or Cambridge.

Tommie’s parents, office-worker Gary Rose and gym manager Tracy, both 33, say they would struggle to afford the £9,000-a-year fees on their own, despite the fact that they do not have to be paid up-front.

Mr Rose said: "He's a typical teenage boy who saw what he wanted and worked hard for it.

"He realised that if you want to get ahead in business and in life, you have to start at a young age.

"I could only dream of making that sort of money at his age."

Tommie gets his stock from bulk discount stores and sells them at a competitive mark-up.

The business has proved so successful, he is able to employ two friends £5.50 per day to help run his business.

But James Inman, headteacher at Buile Hill Visual Arts College, said: "We admire this pupil's entrepreneurship but school is not the place to set-up a black market of fizzy drinks, sweets and chocolates.

"We have extremely high standards and with our healthy eating policy we don't allow isotonic drinks, fizzy drinks and large amounts of sweets for the good of our children."