In the early '90s there were a few at AST.
One was self-funded by the proceeds of a divorce. She passed without too much trouble, though one unkind instructor did suggest that she'd never get hurt in an a crash as she was always so far behind the aeroplane.
One was the son of an immensely wealthy North African. He had no aptitude whatsoever and totally lacked any ability to differentiate left from right or East from West. Soloed after about 50 hours. Phoned his instructor from ABZ after his first solo cross-country landing, saying in a plaintive voice: "Mr ****, my aeroplane, she is on her back". After 150 hours instruction on the PPL IMC Rating course without any significant progress, CFI eventually broke the news to rich and munificent daddy that as long as H***** has got a hole in his arse, he'll never be a pilot. AST folded not long after losing that source of revenue. The really scary thing is that he went on to Medical School. As a pilot, he could kill at most four or five hundred people. As a doctor....