It's a long time since I worked for the CAA in licensing. It was then called FCL and lived in Aviation House, Holborn so my observation may be out of date but the philosophy then was that the Authority loved a sinner come to repentance. So if someone did infringe the law and put his hands up there was usually no formal action taken beyond constructive advice and a warning letter placed on his record for a limited period. We did have the power to vary a person's licence by, for example, limiting the privileges until the pilot had re-sat the Air Law exam. I'm not suggesting the system was perfect but it did enable a graduated and proportional response to violations without invoking the majesty and expense of going to law. This was actually very pragmatic since the rights of appeal against the decisions of the Authority, contained in Section 6 of the ANO (the bit at the back which nobody ever reads) are considerable and time-consuming. Prosecution was always a last resort.