A teenage ‘Del Boy’ who capitalised on coronavirus fears by charging fellow pupils 50p a time to use hand sanitiser was suspended from school for a day.

Oliver, who attends Dixon’s Unity Academy, now faces a day in isolation followed by a two-hour detention after allegedly breaching school rules.

Oliver said: All I can listen to is the radio. They’ve been going on about the coronavirus and how important hand sanitiser and washing your hands is. So before the bus came, I bought a tub of hand wash from Tesco and offered to it my mates. They gave me the idea that I could charge for it, so I did. Other people at school sell stuff like chewing gum, if somebody wants something, they will pay for it. Loads of people wanted this.’

He added: ‘It’s ridiculous really!’

Oliver’s parents are furious at the school about his one-day exclusion, and have praised enterprising Oliver with his stepfather Andrew Tompkins ringing him to say he was a ‘f***ing legend’.

However, his mother Jenny Tompkins,  said that she tried scolding her ‘little Del Boy’, before taking to Facebook to slam the school’s decision.